5 Dear Friend from Sukima
by WillieG.R
Summary: A human causes trouble in Gensokyo, using advanced inventions from Nitori herself, keeping the kappa blinded to his true nature by faking friendship toward her.  Will she open her eyes in time?  Please leave comments/reviews.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:**

**Warning, contains some bloody scenes in the beginning. After fighting with a block, I finally managed to finish the first chapter of my fifth Sukima. Gave it that title for obvious reasons, once you read ahead, that is. Anyway, I won't stall you anymore. Have fun, and please leave a review/comment if you'd like. Thanks in advance.**

**Aug 23**: **I made the flashback parts in italic letters, for less confusion. Sorry about that, as I didn't really see that error until a kind review, and a word from my friend opened my eyes.**

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It's a dark autumn's night at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, where both the front gate and gate guard lie in ruin.

Meiling lies sitting unconscious with her back against the bloodstained gate wall, with a small round open wound on her head that keeps pouring blood down her face.

A man chuckles lightly, and confidently says "that was a nice battle, miss, but you still got ways to go before you can give me some REAL sport."

The man places a steaming gun back on its leather sheath to the right of his waist, chuckles, then says "still, you hit my face. I guess I could give you points for that."

The man gets closer to the light as he cleans the blood off his wickedly smiling mouth with the back of his right hand, revealing himself under the dim light.

He's a strong and bulky man with lightly red skin, his unshaven face full of blood from Meiling's punches, and his brown eyes are filled with desire and the urge to cause harm to anyone or anything.

His wavy black hair is unkempt, and he wears a white open jacket without a shirt underneath, a red ring on his left hand middle finger, a pair of dark blue jeans held up by a brown belt with a golden buckle, and a pair of black army boots.

After spitting out some blood from his mouth, he reaches into his left pocket and pulls out a pair of frameless purple sunglasses, places them on, then frowns as he walks toward the mansion.

Inside, a blue haired fairy maid flies by the front door, holding on to a basket with clean clothes.

Right after she passes by the door, the man kicks it down, startling the little fairy to a yelp, and shouts "what a luxurious place! Who's the master of this splendid building! I want to kill him, so I can make it my own!"

On the top of the first set of stairs, Sakuya, whose eyes glow red with anger, bows as she says "you are certainly a noisy rat. The mistress doesn't deal with the likes of you, so please, leave the mansion at once, or you will have to deal with me!"

The man looks up, his lust for the chief maid brazenly present on his eyes as he says "well, well, well~ Now I definitely want this place for my own. What with such a hot babe like you working here."

A vein pops on Sakuya's forehead as she straightens up with a set of knives on her right hand, then angrily says "die like the pig you are!"

With all her fury, Sakuya unleashes an insane number of knives with all her might, her eyes glowing scarlet as she smiles at the intruder, but to her surprise, the man just stands in place, resting his right hand on his belt and placing his left hand lazily on his thigh, smiling confidently.

Sakuya watches as he slaps his own thigh hard, and just like that, some of her knives fling all over the foyer, while the closest knives to him turn around and head straight back at Sakuya with the same force she threw them with.

At the sight, Sakuya opens her eyes wide and drops to the ground, missing the knives by a miracle.

When she lifts her head up again, she finds the intruder standing right next to her and reaching for her.

Sakuya automatically stops time and rolls away, anxiousness taking over her heart.

Anger quickly takes over her again, and immediately sets as many knives as she can around the man, but to her dismay, the man suddenly starts to move and grabs her arm.

Shock and surprised, Sakuya yelps and screams as the intruder pulls her arm and presses her against himself, and with that wicked and confident smile, he whispers "well, little lady, you certainly have some fire in you. I like that."

Sakuya manages to kick him hard on his stomach, and unable to think straight, she runs away toward the rooms to the right.

As soon as time is release, the knives set by Sakuya turn around and scatter away from the man.

Further ahead in the corridor, Sakuya breathes fast and uncontrollably as she runs away, thinking "that disgusting pig isn't affected by my knives or my time manipulation! I-I need help! Wait, Sakuya, calm down! He's still just a man. Your kick made him scrunch up! Now calm down and face him!"

Sakuya stops running right in front of her own room's door, and turns around.

The man runs to her, ignoring her fighting stance, then jumps to the air straight at her while showing Sakuya all his vulnerable spots, by spreading his arms and legs, which Sakuya attacks with vicious kicks and chops, only to end up being pushed back against the door by his body.

The door to her room bursts open and Sakuya is about to be pinned down by the intruder, but using all her skill, she manages to slip around and get above him before hitting the floor, pushing down hard and using his face to crack the floor beneath them upon impact.

With a smile on his face, the man chuckles as Sakuya continues to punch his back with all her might, only to get her left arm caught by his rough hand and forced back to the floor, then ends up pinned under the lustful intruder, on top of the cracked floor.

Smiling while lying on her, the man whispers "well, I could get used to this."

Frightened, Sakuya calls for help over and over in her mind, unable to use her own voice.

Like a miracle, the cracked floor underneath them breaks when a strange force pushes the knives under Sakuya's clothes, freeing her from the awkward pin under the intruder.

The man stares angrily down the hole, then shouts "dammit, woman! How many knives do you have in that hot little dress?"

Sakuya's answer is another barrage of knives that simply veer away from him.

The man smiles and thinks of going after her, but he jumps and flips away, hiding behind Sakuya's bed, smiling as he says "well, you ARE resilient, aren't you?"

Meiling stands on the doorway, looking enraged at the man while her blood continues to drip down her face and to the floor.

Behind Meiling, Remilia flies by and glares at the intruder, then calmly says "Meiling, kill him."

The man smiles and says "pathetic. A child gives the orders around here? Well, I'm not sticking around! I'll challenge your mistress another time!"

The man jumps through the window, shattering it and falling along with all the glass shards, and just as he lands and rolls on the ground, getting cut by the glass shards, Remilia approaches the broken window and shouts "you can come and challenge me any time! I'll kill you before you even get the chance!"

Meiling pulls the shaken Sakuya from the hole on the ground, places her on her feet, and asks "are you alright, miss Sakuya?"

Remilia approaches her maid and gate guard, flies and places her hand on Sakuya's forehead, then calmly says "Sakuya, it's alright now."

After hearing those words, Sakuya's eyes turn blank as she drops to the ground on her knees, even though Meiling continues to hold her, then tears escape her eyes as she stares at the hole on the ground.

Remilia and Meiling frown at the sight, then Remilia furiously says "he's going to have to answer for this with his blood!"

* * *

The man runs as though the devil herself was after him, even though Remilia stayed behind.

He reaches the shore of the lake, yet he doesn't stop and goes right into the water, but instead of sinking, he just makes a small splash with every step he takes.

His boots seems to have inflated, and with a smile on his face, the man thinks "good. These boots really came in handy. I must thank her, for these."

After reaching the other side of shore, he raises his left hand and pushes a small button on the red ring, then starts to heal rapidly, and run almost as fast as Youmu when she uses her spell cards.

He looks to his left pocket and thinks "the magnet was powerful, but maybe too powerful... and this ring did the trick. Her time and space manipulation became nothing. Ah, and the modification on these boots is just superb... I just love 'em."

The man quickly takes the road to the Youkai Forest, thinking "her inventions are top-notch, that's for sure, but if she finds out now, I'm screwed. I better hurry before she comes to check up on me!"

Meanwhile, down at Nitori's Kappa-pa Resort, Nitori and a robot that has a large green monitor for a head and a set of wheels on a stand for legs, slowly make their way out of the artificial beach, Nitori with a content look on her face.

The computer has an elegant womanly voice, and on the monitor, some green pixels depict a woman wearing glasses and with her hair elegantly picked up.

She looks at Nitori and says "another successful day, lady Nitori. Kappa, humans, and the other youkai all seem to be getting along so well too."

Nitori giggles, placing her hand on her mouth, then places both hands behind her back as she says "kappa and humans are natural friends after all. It's only natural we get along so well. As for the other youkai... let's just make sure the food supply remains unchanged."

The computer stays quiet for a moment, then suddenly says "hmm, you are referring to mister Guzman, right? I mean... about that prior statement. Kappa and humans being friends?"

Nitori blushes as she looks to the apartments in the living section, then says "well, thanks to him I was able to show all of them that I was right!"

The computer stays quiet for a moment again, then says "hmm, I see. And here I thought you were waiting for the right moment to steal his shirikodama while he slept."

Nitori chuckles as she sweats and smiles sheepishly, then says "n-no, I'd never do something like that, Julia."

Julia, the computer, looks to Nitori through her monitor for a moment, before answering "you are very a special kappa, Lady Nitori."

Meanwhile, back at the surface, the man in the white jacked makes it to the Youkai forest, and zips past Hina by the riverbank while thinking "crap, I'm almost there, but at this rate I don't think I'll make it in time!"

Back at the resort, the lights go off for a second, then quickly turn back on.

Nitori looks at Julia with an uneasy frown and asks "what is miss Utsuho doing now?"

Julia immediately replies "I'll get her on line!"

Julia's monitor turns black for a moment, then suddenly turns back on with the image of a large boiler room.

Inside, Okuu tinkers with one of the cylinder-shaped machines, with half of herself inside of it, then slowly pulls herself back up, holding a dim green broken stick on her left hand and swiping off the sweat from her forehead with her right arm.

Nitori sighs and asks "miss Utsuho, what are you doing?"

Okuu looks all round before noticing the camera in front of her, obviously having a monitor as well, since Okuu smiles when she looks at it.

After getting close, Okuu says "ah, one of the kappa. What's wrong?"

Nitori replies "I should be asking the same thing. The lights just went off for a moment."

Okuu stares at the green stick on her hand, while Petal flies in front of the camera in her human from, spreading her arms in the air while shouting "hi" and falling back to the floor and out of sight with a thud.

Okuu shows the stick to Nitori and smiles as she says "this plutonium stick was damaged, so I just replaced it."

Nitori asks "isn't it dangerous to hold it like that?"

Okuu smiles and says "don't worry, I got nuclear fusion, so I'll be fine. Still, it's not common for this to happen, so I'll keep an eye around here. There might be intruders."

Nitori sighs and smiles, then says "then I must thank you, miss."

Okuu salutes Nitori and drops the stick on the ground, and after picking Petal up instead, she looks around and asks "hey, where am I?"

Back outside, the man stands by an isolated area on the riverbank and looks around, and as he does, he says "no time. Gonna have to jump!"

Back at the resort, Nitori and Julia finally make it to the apartments, then use an elevator to reach the third floor.

They quietly make their way to the very last room at the end of the corridor, then Nitori knocks on the door.

Nitori loudly asks "Guzman, are you in there? Can I come in?"

From inside, the voice of the man that attacked the Scarlet Devil Mansion comes through, though sounding more friendly as he says "sure, come on in."

Guzman now lies on a bed, dripping wet and smiling at Nitori as he waves to her and asks "Nitori, hi! How are you?"

Nitori giggles and says "I see you were having a swim... but..."

Nitori notices he's wearing his jacket and jeans, then asks "why aren't you wearing a swimsuit?"

Guzman smiles and says "sometimes it's nice to do things a little... differently."

Nitori giggles as she says "I guess you're right."

* * *

As they leave Guzman's room, Nitori says "...and if you need anything, just ask Julia."

From inside the room, sounding very friendly, Guzman replies "thanks Nitori. You really are a special friend, you know."

Nitori smiles as she closes the door, then her smile brightens up as she and Julia make their way back down.

As they quietly enter the elevator, Nitori remembers the day she found Guzman.

FLASHBACK

_Nitori sits by the river, sinking her feet in the water and swaying them back and forth while eating a cucumber and waving a cat's tail around for unknown reasons._

_She suddenly feels something in the air and gets nervous, and with her eyes wide open, she looks around as though expecting something to happen, then drops her cucumber into the river as she quickly takes her feet out of the water, turning invisible almost immediately after._

The present Nitori thinks "I remember thinking about what I read from that human chronicler's book. Ah, the possibilities of having such peaceful lives... Then I felt that jolt and got so nervous."

_The Nitori from the memory now hides behind a tree and looks all around, trembling with nervousness._

_A loud buzzing sound startles her so much, she throws her cat's tail away and runs away to the river, but she stops when a large purple rift, expelling purple lightning bolts, opens just above the water._

_She yelps and falls to the ground on her seat, accidentally deactivating her optical camouflage and pushing herself away from the rift with her legs, being too frightened to get up on her feet and run._

The present Nitori thinks "I thought something dangerous was coming, and I got so scared I made a lot of stupid mistakes. That moment felt as though time was standing still, a single minute feeling like ten or maybe twenty. I mean, I know about that sukima youkai, but she's never done something like that."

_From the dangerous-looking rift, a man with purple frameless glasses falls right down to the river, hitting his head hard against the edge of the shore, getting knocked out and floating defenseless on the river's current._

_The rift closes up immediately afterward, yet Nitori is still too nervous to move, until she notices the man's hand clinging to the shore._

_She gets up on her feet and instinctively runs to help him, grabbing his hand and pulling with all her might._

_As she does, a mechanical hand springs right out of her backpack and reaches the tree Nitori was hiding behind, wraps itself around it, then pulls._

_Nitori pulls the man to the shore_, then the present Nitori thinks "from that sukima, or rift, or gap, as most call them, a human fell straight to the river. He banged his head hard against that edge, yet he somehow managed to grab on to the shore, even though he was unconscious when I pulled him out. I got a little scared when I noticed that gun of his, but... he needed my help. I couldn't just leave him."

_Nitori takes notice of the man's gun inside a leather sheath to the right of his waist, but she seems to pay it no mind and makes sure the human is safely on the ground and away from the river before looking for twigs and broken branches to make a fire._

* * *

_During the course of that day, and all through the night, Nitori nurses the human, even keeping him safe from some wild youkai in the area._

_Morning comes, and it seems the man isn't going to wake up any time soon, so Nitori decides to take a break and eat something back home._

_She returns to the man after thirty minutes, carrying a strange machine with two open ends on her hands, then gasps and hides behind some bushes after noticing the man is awake and sitting by the fire, mumbling to himself._

_Curiosity and worry get the best of Nitori, since she is worried for the man's well-being, as well as being curious about him, so she slowly makes her way to him after activating her optical camouflage._

Meanwhile, the present Nitori thinks "I don't know why, but I nursed him back to health... though I did get tired. I just left him for a few minutes to grab a bite and my machine, and when I came back, he was already awake. I was so scared to approach him, but I needed to know if he was ok... and to leave him alone now would just be awful of me."

_Nitori continues to cautiously approach the man, and once she's a few feet away from him, she stands and stares at him, forgetting about the heavy machine she's carrying._

_The man stops mumbling, then looks to where Nitori is standing with his eyes, keeping his face to the fire._

_Nitori starts to grunt and whimper lightly as the machine on her hands gets heavier by the second._

_The man smiles, and in an instant, he jumps to his feet and throws himself at Nitori, knocking her machine out of her hands before it crushes her on the ground, then points his gun at her head._

_Her optical camouflage malfunctions and reveals her terrorized face, tears running down her eyes as she trembles violently, and although she feels her heart is stuck on her throat, she manages to whisper "wait. I am a friend. I won't hurt you."_

_The man sniffs the air around them, then gets his face closer to Nitori's sniffs her hair, then sheathes his gun, gets off the little kappa, and offer his hand to help her up._

_With an unfriendly air about him, and an equally unfriendly face, the man says "I recognize that scent. You're the one that was nursing me back there."_

_After Nitori calms down and stops trembling, she cautiously accepts his hand, then he gently pulls her up and says "I still need your help. You see, I'm lost, I got no food or shelter... Could you tell me where's the nearest city?"_

_Nitori looks around while squeezing her hands together and rubbing the back of her boots together, trying to find the courage to overcome her own shyness and talk back._

The present Nitori thinks "he jumped on me and almost killed me. I am SO lucky he recognized my scent... a rare trait for a human. Still, he felt so threatening I couldn't help but be scared of him. My tongue got tied, and I swear, I felt like throwing up... but then Hina came by."

_Nitori is about to speak to the man, but Hina suddenly jumps out of the bushes, happily saying "what a glorious day! So many misfortunes to gather, and just from THIS human alone!"_

_The man immediately points his gun at Hina and fires a shot._

_As the bullet impacts, Hina's body seems to turn into a purple gas, allowing the bullet to go right through her, then the man looks at his gun and angrily says "shit! 10 shots left!"_

_Nitori screams and jumps on the man's arm, lowering it and the gun, shouting "no wait! She's Hina! She's a friend!"_

_Hina start to spin and happily says "don't worry, it'll take more than that to kill me. Now, I'll take all your misfortunes away. Just give me a few minutes... it's just so much~!"_

_Hina smiles brightly and starts spinning clockwise, and a thick purple cloud starts emanating from the man, becoming visible even to himself._

_Nitori backs away and exclaims "WHOA! She wasn't kidding!"_

_Right after saying that, the magical shockwave caused by Marisa, when she tricks Ail into opening that gap to the dragon's paradise, passes right through the area and Hina starts to scream._

_Nitori gasps as she watches Hina fall on her knees to the ground, convulsing violently and vomiting a purple goop._

_Nitori looks at the man, who simply shrugs while a thick purple cloud continues to escape his body and enter Hina's body._

_The little kappa looks at her machine on the ground and rushes toward it, immediately turning it on and pointing it's top opening at Hina._

_At first, it absorbs the misfortunes that seem to be hurting Hina, but shortly after, it shorts out, sending a small spark to the ground, then spits out an even darker and thicker cloud that seems to force itself inside the curse goddess._

The present Nitori thinks "it was horrible. She was just helping him get rid of his misfortunes, then this magical wave, that now I know was Marisa's doing, caused everything to backfire! She was in pain, and there was nothing I could do! The human wasn't helping either, but... what could he do? He's a human!"

_Hina abruptly flies up, and as she floats high in the air, contorting and spitting out some more purple goop, she screams "someone help me, please~!"_

_Nitori fights to turn off her own machine and shouts "I'm trying, I'm trying!"_

_The little kappa gasps and yelps when a large purple cloud with yellow eyes knocks her away from her own machine before she is able to turn it off, then makes it way to Hina._

_Nitori shouts "Hina! Hina, fight it! Don't let it get you!"_

_Everything suddenly stops, and Hina slowly floats down to the ground as all the purple clouds enter her body._

_Nitori rushes to her friend, concerned for her well being, but instead of her friend, she is met by a frightful face with yellow eyes that smiles as she expels curses and misfortunes all around._

_Nitori shouts "Hina, stop! What are you doing?"_

_Without hesitation, and with a wicked smile on her face, Hina sends a curse straight at Nitori, catching the kappa off guard, but to her luck, then man she just saved gets on the way and takes the curse on his back, shielding her from the effects._

_Nitori looks up with fright and asks "wait, what are you doing?"_

_The man smiles and says "you saved me, now I saved... you... urk."_

_The man collapses once more, knocking Nitori down with him, but the little kappa is ready._

_She pushes a button on the side of her backpack, and as a pair of hands grab the man and lift him, a set of wheels pop from the sides, then she and the unconscious man make their getaway on a rolling backpack._

_Moments later, the man wakes up inside one of the rooms in the Kappa-pa resort with Nitori and her computer looking down on him._

_He groans as he tries to sit back up, but Nitori places a gentle hand on his chest and says "don't move, sir. That curse could have killed you, but Julia and I managed to save you."_

_The man smiles and says "Guzman... Call me Guzman."_

_Nitori smiles and says "I-I'm... um... I'm Nitori Kawashiro! Um, sorry about what happened. I-"_

_The man raises his hand and says "it's alright, Kawashiro."_

_Nitori smiles again, tilts her head left, then says "please, call me Nitori."_

FLASHBACK OVER

Guzman stands in front of the mirror of a dresser in front of his bed, in the very same room where Nitori and Julia saved his life from Hina's curse, the same room he's been using all this time.

He looks at the mirror with disgust, then says to himself "to this day I don't know why I saved her. What the hell is she to me? Well, whatever. It paid off. I got a nice hiding place, and a good source of ammunition and all sort of weapons."

He suddenly smiles at himself in a most malicious way, then says "only nine bullets left, then I'll have to rely on those 'non-lethal' bullets she made for me... but who cares, Guzman! With all these weapons at your disposal, you won't NEED the gun anymore!"

* * *

Meanwhile, several feet below Nitori's resort, the elevator doors open for Nitori and Julia, and as soon as they exit, they find themselves in front of two large metallic doors, each with a warning sign on them.

Nitori approaches the left door and taps it twice, revealing a tiny door big enough for her hands to fit in, and inside is a small terminal with numbers and three symbols.

She presses the numbers 6548, then the symbol of a bird in mid-flight, and as she presses the keys, she says the password out loud.

A sweat drop falls down the back of Julia's monitor, then Julia says "lady Nitori, perhaps you shouldn't be repeating the password out loud."

Nitori giggles and says "relax Julia. Only you, me and mister Guzman know how to access this place."

Julia looks away from Nitori and softly says "that's what I'm afraid of."

The doors slowly slide open while Nitori looks at Julia and asks "what's the matter? Don't tell me you don't trust him either?"

Julia sighs and says "lady Nitori, I mean no disrespect to your judgment, but humans mostly crave power above all else. I still think giving him that ring was a grave mistake. What if it goes to his head and-?"

Nitori raises her hand to Julia, then looks inside the room.

In the room are countless inventions that looks far more advanced than anything; a typical-looking cowboy hat that hovers just above a small glass table, shifting colors and beeping, a metallic-colored backpack that seems to turn invisible, depending from which side you look at it from, small discs that stack themselves, sitting next to a small machine with a monitor that flips open, then flips itself back into a box that could fit in the palm of the hand.

At the end of all these marvelous inventions are two items sealed by a large glass tube, each with a warning sign underneath them.

The one to the left is a blue ring with a sign that reads "Enhances Physicality, Negates Space Distortion, Speeds Healing for Light Wounds", and next to the ring is an empty socket, meant for Guzman's red ring.

Inside the tube to the right is a large weapon that looks like a compact bazooka, and the sign underneath it read "Rainbow Generator. Caution: 10x the power of one Master Spark. Unstable."

Nitori enters the room and says "look, he's a very good human. If he was as bad as you all say he is, he would have done something already."

Julia notices Guzman's wet black boots on the ground next to the table with a flat and round metallic item with yellow energy pulsating on its center above a sign that reads "Area Magnet" on it.

She pokes Nitori's shoulder and points at the boots.

Nitori looks at the boots, then says "silly man. He must have been looking for the instant dryer. Did he forget it's over here?"

Nitori looks to the other side of the room toward a small gun-like item with a sign that reads "Instant Dryer – Will dry all. Use with extreme caution."

Julia sighs and says "I don't think he was looking for that, lady Nitori."

Nitori raises her hand again, then says "Julia, I appreciate your concern, but now you are just assuming things. Guzman is a very good man, and I will not doubt him. Thanks to him, I have been able to keep this place up and running. And remember what he did when the waves went out of control!"

Julia quickly replies "I know, lady Nitori. But what if he was just acting? You never know."

Nitori's anger becomes evident in her face as she frowns and scowl in a frightening manner, then angrily shouts "Julia, cut it out! He's a good man, and you know it!"

Julia takes a few steps away from Nitori, seemingly frightened, then bows and says "I-I'm so sorry, lady Nitori. I didn't mean to-"

Nitori sighs and says "sorry, sorry... I... don't know what came over me. Look, just trust me. Guzman is good. Sure, he's a little odd sometimes, but so am I."

Julia keeps quiet, uncertain if the little kappa has really calmed down or not, then Nitori says "look, just dry these for him and take them back. I'm sure he'll appreciate it. Now, I need to work on that Rainbow Generator again... it insists on being a weapon. Once those bugs are worked out, I'll be able to add rainbow surfing for the guests."

Julia bows to Nitori and says "as you wish, lady Nitori", then reveals a pair of retractable arms from the side of the monitor, then quickly grabs Guzman's boots and takes them to the small drier, keeping her preoccupied face hidden from her master.

* * *

An hour later, Julia is knocking on Guzman's door, holding his black army boots with her left retractable arm.

From inside the room, Guzman says "come on in."

Julia enters the room and immediately drops the boots on the floor next to the door, retracts her arms, then stares at Guzman with her pixilated face and says "I found these next to Nitori's magnet, mister Guzman. Care to explain how they got there?"

Guzman smiles as he walks out of the bathroom with his face cleanly shaved, wearing a pair of white shorts and a white towel over his shoulders.

He looks at his boots on the floor and says "ah, thanks for bringing those. I went to look for the dryer thingy to get them dry after my swim, but started admiring her other inventions and just... forgot they were there."

Julia hums, then asks "and is there any reason you ran all the way back here?"

Guzman doesn't reply and simply smiles back at the computer, who says "yes, I saw the tracks after I scanned the floor, mister Guzman. I will ask you to stay away from lady Nitori's vault, because if something were to happen, I will have to place all the blame on you. Lady Nitori is very careful with her inventions, and unlike humans, she doesn't lust for power through said inventions."

Guzman laughs heartily, then asks "unlike humans? You think I'm going down there, stealing her invention, and using them for personal gain, is that it?"

Being a computer, Julia cannot lie, so she simply nods and says "you are correct. Please, do not be angry. I am merely worried for lady Nitori's well being. You see, I fear she's becoming more sentimental lately, and if something were to happen now, she could break."

Guzman's smile suddenly leaves his wicked face, and in place comes one nasty glare with clenched teeth as he thinks "again... I feel pain for this little girl! Why? She's just a tool isn't she?"

Julia and Guzman stare at each other for a moment, then Guzman's smile returns and he says "you're worrying too much. Wait a minute, can computers worry?"

Julia blinks once before replying "lady Nitori made sure I was the perfect computer, mister Guzman. I will not divulge how she built me, but know that without the hell raven's power, and that nuclear powered generator, none of this would exist. Not the resort, her recent inventions, or myself."

Guzman quietly stares back, then suddenly nods and says "don't worry about a thing. Nitori is my friend, you know."

Julia stares at the man for a moment, then says "hmm, well if what you way is true, you should thank her for these boots. I'll have you know, she made them far more advanced than mister Ail's."

As soon as the name reaches Guzman's ears, a glint escapes his left eye, and a wide and wicked smile escapes his face.

He chuckles, and in a sinister tone of voice, he says "I'll thank her the very next time I see her. Now tell me... is this 'Ail' you just spoke of the same Ail I happen to know?"

Julia blinks twice before saying "I wouldn't know if we are speaking of the same Ail."

Guzman's face turns serious as he suddenly says "he has brown hair and wears a purple shirt and black pants. His boots are also brown in color."

Julia smiles, then says "ah, what luck. Yes, we are speaking of the very same Ail. Though he's varying a bit more on what he wears."

Wicked joy becomes evident in Guzman's eyes after Julia's reply, though the computer cannot recognize this, so she asks "is he a friend of yours?"

Guzman smiles in a disturbing manner, then says "oh yes... he's... a friend. Tell me, is he living around here?"

Julia smiles again, then says "oh yes. He frequents this area, since his girl mate lives on top of these mountains."

Again, a glint escapes Guzman's eye as he smiles even more wickedly, and sinisterly says "you don't say. Well, I believe a visit is in order. Can you tell me more about this 'girl mate' of his?"

Julia nods, and in seconds, images of Sanae appear on her monitor as she says "the wind priestess, Sanae Kochiya. She is a living god that seems to look up to another shrine maiden of this land. She's still new to this place, but she is quickly adapting to living in Gensokyo. Her specialty is wind control and possesses a keen ability to cause miracles around herself. She looks fragile to some, but she is not to be underestimated."

Guzman smiles as he stares into the monitor with lust in his eyes, then says "no opponent should ever be underestimated, Julia. You underestimate an ant, and you run the risk of being carried away."

Julia's monitor returns to her pixilated face as she nods and says "that is correct."

Guzman chuckles, then says "I'm gonna go and jog at the beach now."

Julia asks "but aren't you a human? Don't you need rest?"

Guzman smirks, then wickedly says "I am way too excited after hearing about my 'dear friend' Ail. Don't worry about me. I'll be just fine."

* * *

At the artificial beach, the sky mimics the sky outside the underground.

The sun's crown glistens on the crystalline wavy waters as it slowly rises to a new morning.

Guzman jogs on the sand, just like he said he would, wearing only his white shorts and exposing his well-shaped body, dazzling the few early-rising women there, making the few still sleepy men feel jealous and making them glare at him.

He doesn't care about them, though, as he continues to smile wickedly, caught in his own thoughts.

He jogs out of the sands and reaches the artificial mountains, where he moves around like an athlete, jumping over logs, balancing on one hand on a jagged rock, then continues jogging toward the top of the mountain.

He stands on the edge of the mountain and looks down to the water and thinks "Ail, the one that managed to escape me. Yes, I get another chance! Another chance to claim your head as my trophy! And that girl... you sure know how to pick 'em."

He suddenly smiles wide, revealing his teeth, looking maddened, then takes a dive to the water, making the women scream for him out of concern, and the men hope he doesn't come out, though still looking a bit worried their wish does come true.

Guzman rises from underwater and starts swimming against the current while thinking "I'll make him pay for escaping me. NO ONE runs away from Guzman for long! I'll track him down, TAKE his girl, and while he cries after she becomes mine, I'll be there to take his life. I'll savor his pain as I slowly take his life away! YES! This will be a glorious victory for me!"

He finally reaches shore and calmly walks away from the beach, ignoring the hungry eyes from the increasing women in the area, hiding the malevolent and crazed smile on his face.

Reaching the gates to the apartments, he chuckles as he thinks "today, I rest. Tonight, I hunt! I'll go after my greatest prey ever, and I won't rest until his head hangs on my wall!"

Some of the youkai in the hot tubs stare at Guzman with both disgust and caution as he makes his way to the elevator, able to feel his malicious aura, unlike the humans, and Nitori, who seems to be blinded to what her truly is, ignoring the warnings Marisa, Mima gave her before, and even Julia, who continues to give her warning of her human friend, Guzman.

* * *

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Guzman, Julia and Ail were created by Willie G.R.

AUG 22 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Geez, of all the times to get a damned writer's block! I finally managed to write the first chapter, but I tell you, it took me a WHILE! I had to rewrite entire paragraphs, and that's BEFORE I proofed this! *SIGH* Regardless, I did it. Yes, this chapter is a little on the dark side (unlike what I usually write), but don't worry, like all my Sukimas, there's going to be a few good laughs. Now, about this villain... He's lustful, bloodthirsty, loves to cause pain to others... Well, it's going to be an interesting journey this time. Look forward to the next chapter, which I hope am able to finish without getting blocked again. Ah well, until next time, thanks for reading, please leave a comment or review if you wish, and see you next chapter, if the spirits will allow it.**


	2. Chapter 2

It's a beautiful autumn morning at the Hakurei Shrine, and after enjoying her breakfast, Reimu now sits on the shrine's porch, calmly drinking her tea with a piece of cake baked by Rika, waiting for Rika herself to finish her bath, so she can take her own.

She takes a sip of her tea, takes a nibble form her cake, cleans some icing from her cheek, then sighs and contently asks herself "ah, just how long will this peace last this time?"

There is a loud boom to her right, and a thick cloud rises from the ground in a specific area, and from inside the thick cloud, Tenshi's voice comes through as she happily shouts "good morning, Hakurei Shrine! I've brought PEACHES!"

Sounding annoyed, yet trying to sound nice, Reimu replies "The celestial again. Good morning. Are you leaving yet?"

Tenshi steps out of the dust cloud with at least a dozen peaches resting on her skirt, looking at Reimu with curiosity in her face as she says "but I just got here."

Reimu sighs in defeat, takes a sip of tea, then says "Rika will be out in a minute... so why don't you start sweeping some leaves while you wait?"

Tenshi asks "why don't you help me?"

Reimu replies "I'm very busy."

Tenshi sweats and twitches, almost dropping her peaches, then says "then I'm busy too."

Reimu takes another nibble from her cake, then replies "then you should leave."

Tenshi smiles smugly and says "you're just lazy."

Reimu smiles back, then says "I'm still cute."

Tenshi twitches again, letting one peach fall to the ground as a drop of sweat slowly rolls down the back of her hair.

The sound of a sliding door catches both their attention, and from inside, Rika asks "miss Reimu, is everything alright?"

Reimu turns her torso around, smiling and saying "yeah, everything's just fi-", then suddenly drops her teacup, which lands straight and only spilling a little tea on the porch, her hair stands on ends, and she opens her eyes wide.

Tenshi just gasps as her eyes hide under the shadow of her own hair.

Inside is Rika, wearing her shrine maiden's outfit as always.

A long red skirt with white bands at the bottom borders that rise to her waist on the sides, a white kimono-like shirt with long sleeves and red ribbons tied just below her shoulders, her red scarf with the fire design at the end, and the kanji letters that read "The Will of Fire", wrapped around her neck, along with her sapphire yin-yang necklace.

Her innocent and kind sky blue eyes, and her long wavy hair that reaches to her waist, add a certain charm to her already charming wings, and now, over her apron, she wears a large ribbon wrapped round her lower torso, and ties it into two small bows in front, which enhances her womanly features even more.

She looks at Reimu's and Tenshi's faces, and with a concerned look, she asks "miss Reimu? Tenshi? What's wrong?"

Reimu feels slightly annoyed, noticing that, although she is taller than Rika, her maid still possesses the one thing she wishes for, and as she looks at her own chest, she whispers "er... a-are you sure you want to wear that? It's, umm... still a little hot from summer."

Tenshi looks at her own chest as well, however, when she looks at Rika, her cheeks turn pink and a bit of blood trails down her nose, and with a smile on her face, she says "I don't know, Reimu. I think she looks great."

Rika blushes and giggles, lowering her head a bit as she smiles and says "thank you, miss Tenshi. You are most kind", then flaps her small wings involuntarily.

Tenshi gasps and opens her mouth wider, her face turns redder, and more blood gushes down her nose, staining the peaches.

Reimu simply blushes and turns around, arching her body to hide her chest, then continues to drink what is left of her tea while thinking "calm down, Reimu. Just calm down."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Moriya shrine, Budou sits under a tree, humming to herself as she picks a few small yellow flowers from her right, and places them on her long teal hair that reaches to her back, next to her white ribbon with black borders, giggling occasionally.

She wears her usual brown little dress with her teal apron, her pink socks that allow her nails to go through without tearing them apart, and now wears a black necklace with a small gold rose around her neck.

There is a loud blast and Ail's scream, and Budou's smile disappears as she sighs, then says to herself "they're at it again."

From the lake, Ail shouts "dammit Sanae, I'm not in the mood for this now!"

Sanae replies "that's irrelevant! I'm a shrine maiden of Gensokyo! Kanako says I have to hunt youkai, and that's what I'm doing!"

Ail shouts "Kanako, you fat hag, stop messing with me!"

Kanako flies from the shrine, breaking a hole on the roof, surrounded by fire as she roars out loud.

Suwako flies after Kanako, shouting "Yasaka, you idiot, you're destroying my shine!"

Budou stands up and looks up to the sky with her violet, pupil-les eyes, saying "well, let's stop mama... eh?"

Rapidly, Budou crouches and holds her skirt down, and almost instantly, Ail, Sanae, Kanako, and Suwako fly by in that order, going so fast, they cause a small vacuum that knocks all the flowers off Budou's head and threaten to knock her off her feet, if it weren't for her large wings, which she uses to balance herself.

Ail wears his usual violet shirt, long black shorts with many pockets, his brown boots, and the golden blessed bracelet in his right wrist.

High in the sky, he takes a stand and prepares a dense white and blue orb and threateningly says "Sanae, I'm warning you, I'm going to attack!"

Looking quite happy and confident, Sanae smiles and says "bring it on! No matter how strong, youkai must be punished by humans. Even half ones like you! Just like lady Yasaka says!"

Ail glares at Kanako and says "lady YASAKA is not always right!"

Kanako roars and says "you take that back, whelp! I'm NOT a hag!"

Suwako reaches Kanako and pulls on her skirt, getting her attention before it falls off, then angrily shouts "you idiot, look what you did to my roof! And what's this about hunting Ail! I thought we agreed: No More Attacking Ail!"

Kanako spits fire as she shouts "Sanae is a shrine maiden! She has to hunt youkai! And he called me a hag!"

Sanae smiles and says "here I come, Ail!"

Ail shouts "dammit, don't make me attack!"

Sanae replies "you pantsed me twice!"

Ail shouts back "that's no reason to try and blast me for the fifth time in two days! Uh-oh!"

Ail suddenly gets inside one of his gaps, and before Sanae or the goddesses take notice, Budou's paralyzing screech reaches their ears and leaves them all trembling in the air, unable to move, yet managing to keep afloat.

Ail opens a gap to Budou's left, and as he walks out of it, with a neutral face and tone of voice he says "now Budou, you know it's not polite to paralyze people like that."

Budou chuckles nervously, rubbing the back of her head while her cheeks turn pink, then says "I'm sorry papa, but I was wondering if you could open a gap for me."

Ail looks curiously at Budou and asks "oh, and where to?"

Budou smiles and says "I was supposed to go see smart-sis Cirno today, but I got distracted."

Ail crosses his arms over his chest, and sounding stern, yet understanding, he says "now Budou, you shouldn't rely on my gaps so much. If you do, you'll turn into an exercise deficient old lady, like a certain someone."

Somewhere in Mayohiga, Yukari prepares herself to go to sleep on Ail's old bed, and as she places the sheets over her body, she sneezes so suddenly and so loudly, the bed rattles, and the sheets float in the air for a few seconds before slowly and gently coming back down and cover her up.

Yukari sniffles and says "ugh, must be all this dust. Ran~"

Back at the Moriya Shrine grounds, Ail continues "...so you should always remember to exercise properly, eat some vegetables as well as your fruits, and-"

Budou smiles and interrupts Ail, saying "the paralysis is wearing off."

Ail grabs Budou's arm and opens a gap straight to the Misty Lake's shore, then smiles and says "come on, Cirno's waiting for you. You must not be late!"

Ail and Budou enter the gap, then it closes up just as a red star and a sacred log crash on the ground beneath where it was.

Sanae pouts and says "aww! He got away!"

Kanako clenches her fist and says "I'm not a hag!"

Suwako grabs Kanako by her ear and drags her back to the shrine, looking annoyed as a vein pulsates on her forehead and saying "you're fixing the ceiling right now!"

Sanae sighs, then shouts "Suwako, Kanako, I'm heading to that mansion's lake! I'll be back before dinner!"

Suwako replies "bring back some sweets from the village~!"

* * *

Moments later, at the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu lazily cleans the dishes, while Rika sweeps the shrine grounds with some help from Tenshi, who refuses to leave Rika's side, and it's been this way ever since the day they saw that memory of their meeting in the past*.

Reimu finishes with the dishes and walks outside with a bored look on her face, while she cleans her hands with a small white cloth.

She stops at the backside porch, looks around the ground, then sighs and says "and yet another unwanted visitor."

Remilia seems to jump from the roof, then she slowly lands in front of Reimu with an urgent look on her face.

Reimu's bored expression quickly changes when she notice's Remilia's face, then Remilia says "I need your permission to hunt down and kill a despicable human, Reimu!"

Reimu stares back at Remilia with a frightful, yet straight face, unable to give an immediate answer.

The maiden finds herself landing at the Scarlet Devil Mansion's gates a few minutes later, and Remilia lands to her right, while Rika lands to her left.

Reimu asks "so, where exactly did that celestial go to?"

Rika giggles and says "I asked her to go home, seeing as this is official shrine business."

Reimu grumbles and thinks "Tenshi never listens to me. It's got to be that new outfit you're wearing, Rika."

Remilia closes her parasol as she heads to her mansion, since the trees surrounding the area block the sun from reaching the entrance.

As soon as they enter the mansion, they find Meiling sitting on the stairs, apparently being treated unsuccessfully by Patchouli, seeing that as soon a she tries to stand up, she falls back down again in a daze.

Rika takes notice and immediately heads over to them in order to assist.

Reimu notices the bloody bandages around Meiling's head and says "if he drew that much blood form Meiling, he certainly must be something."

Remilia calmly says "that's not all he did, Reimu. He tried to soil Sakuya. He was all over her, in all the meaning of the word. Due to some luck on her side, she managed to escape him, but she..."

Reimu gasps, placing her hands on her mouth, and asks "oh no! He broke her?"

Remilia rubs her forehead with her finger and thumb, then says "I thought that was the case too... until-"

There is a loud explosion from the basement, along with the clattering of various metallic items, then Sakuya's enraged voice makes the entire mansion vibrate as she shouts "dammit Sakuya! You're failing your mistress again! What's the matter with you?"

A large sweat drop rolls down Reimu's left cheek as she takes a step back in surprise and says "whoa... how long has-?"

Remilia immediately answers "she blew up the kitchen this morning, then stabbed ME, thinking I was slacking off."

Reimu tries to suppress her laugh, but her chortling quickly reaches Remilia's ears.

The vampire sighs and says "there's a reason I called for you, Reimu. Maybe you can talk to her. I keep telling her she didn't fail me, but she insists she lacked discipline... then broke the teacup on her hand."

Reimu face palms, then says "Remilia, I'm not a miracle worker."

Before Remilia answers to that, Rika screams out loud, getting Reimu's, Remilia's, and the few fairy maids' attention.

* * *

Rika hyperventilates while holding the bandages from Meiling's forehead on her left hand, looking at Meiling's bullet wound and pacing left and right, gently holding Meiling's face and looking into the wound every time she stops.

She starts to tremble, then manages to calmly say "Patchouli, she has a metal object inside that hole. Please, you have to pull it out!"

Patchouli gently strikes her left fist on her right hand, then looking as unfriendly as ever and sounding calm, she says "so that's why it wouldn't heal. Metal object... are you sure, miss Rika?"

Rika's eyes turn glassy and tears start to run down her face as she urgently says "yes! It's a bullet! Please, take it out!"

Patchouli opens a book she pulls form under her robe and looks through the pages, while Rika rips off one of the bars from the stair's rails, orders Meiling to bite down on it, then grabs the gate guard's right hand with both of hers.

Patchouli smiles and says "alright... Let's take that thing out."

Patchouli raises her left hand as it glows silver, while Meiling looks at Rika curiously, asking through her teeth "miss Rika, why am I... AK!"

Meiling's entire body tenses up and she squeezes Rika's hand, though doing her best not to use all her strength.

Rika squeezes back and nervously says "take a deep breath. It's going to hurt more!"

As Patchouli says "I can see something", Meiling grips the step she's sitting on with her left hand and squeezes it so hard she cracks it with ease.

Rika gently rubs the gate guard's head as she says "shh, it's almost over."

Meiling clenches her eyes shut as tears run down her cheeks, and the wooden bar she's biting cracks down as it's about to break.

Meiling whimpers for a moment, and finally, after another two seconds, Patchouli manages to pull the bullet out of the gate guard's head.

Meiling collapses, her body completely relaxes very suddenly as she takes in many deep breaths, recovering from the pain.

Rika grabs Meiling and sits her head on her lap, then gently rubs her head with her mint-colored glowing hand, whispering "it's alright, Meiling. You'll be just fine now. It's out."

Patchouli uses a water spell to clean the bullet from all the blood, then admires the small chrome-colored cylinder with the narrowed end, saying "what sort of magic is this?"

Reimu and Remilia approach Patchouli, while Rika angrily says "that's not magic, miss Patchouli! That's a bullet. That thing I was telling you about last time I stayed here."

Patchouli yelps and drops the bullet to the ground, thinking it's going to explode on her hand, but Rika angrily says "no, it's not going to explode anymore. You see, it needs a gun for that. That cowardly weapon of death!"

Reimu looks at Rika with concern, then asks "Rika, what's the matter?"

As if caught in her own thoughts, Rika says "guns are horrible weapons meant to kill. Some claim it's to defend, but only cowards use those things. Those abominations only take lives away and never protect anything. Everything those guns shoot, everything those bullets touch, simply dies!"

Remilia stares at the bullet and gulps, then says "thank goodness Meiling is so strong."

Rika gently brushes the unconscious Meiling's hair, then says "she needs a doctor! Even if she's not dead, those bullets still destroy! It's all they can do!"

A gloomy silence takes over the foyer as the girls on the ground floor continue to stare at the bullet, then a gap suddenly opens to Remilia's right.

Ail pops his head from the gap and exclaims "hello everyone. Came to see how's everything."

He notices the looks on the girls' faces, then notices Meiling's bullet wound, and the gate guard bleeding on Rika's lap, then he gasps and exclaims "what the hell? A bullet wound?"

Rika immediately exclaims "she needs a doctor!"

Ail exclaims "come, we'll take her to Eirin's! Miss Reimu, I left Budou outside. Could you check on her for me and tell her I'll be back soon?"

Reimu nods, then she, Remilia and Patchouli find themselves jumping to the air with a yelp, avoiding Sakuya's rampage cleaning.

After almost crashing over them with her broom, Sakuya stops and trembles as she turns her crazed sight to the girls, then says "I-I-I must clean... G-get out of the way! O-oh no! Meiling! Argh, I failed again!"

Remilia shouts "Sakuya, stop that already!"

Sakuya starts to cry and shouts "I disappointed my lady again~!", then drops her broom and runs toward the grand hallway.

Remilia and Reimu chase after her, Remilia shouting "wait, Sakuya~! Stop!", and Reimu shouting "no, Remilia, calm down! You're only scaring her!"

* * *

Meanwhile, down at the lake's shore, Budou stands under a lonely tree near the edge of the water, while Cirno sits with her legs crossed on a frozen patch on the lake's water, closing her eyes and meditating.

Budou loudly and calmly says "alright smart sis. You concentrate... focus... and when you feel you are ready, you open your eyes and summon as many of those orbs as you can."

Cirno doesn't respond and simply takes a deep breath of air.

Budou stares at Cirno and asks "smart sis, did you hear me?"

Cirno keeps quiet, takes another deep breath, then her head tilts to the left.

A vein pulsates on Budou's forehead while her eyes hide under the shadow of her hair, and her teeth turn jagged inside her widely open mouth as she angrily says "and she fell asleep!"

The little bat youkai calms herself down and simply stares at Cirno with a calm glare, then lifts her index finger and prepares a light-green spark on its tip.

She points her finger at Cirno, smiles, then whispers "wakey-wakey miss ice fairy~", then shoots a thin laser beam that strikes Cirno's butt to the left, making the ice fairy scream and jump in surprise and pain, and fall into the water.

Many bubbles surface from where Cirno fell to, away from the shore, but Cirno jumps out of the water right beside the shore, shouting "hey, what's the big idea?"

Budou sighs and says "I told you smart sis, if you fall asleep, I will punish you!"

Cirno's lips wriggle as she lets her hands hang, then looks at Budou and asks "I fell asleep?"

Before Budou answers, she and Cirno yelp and jump in place when a young man speaks behind them, roughly asking "where is the Human Village?"

Cirno and Budou look back and see a young-looking man, hiding his face under a a black hood with chimera designs on the sleeves over a black shirt with skull designs on it, black jeans, black sneakers with red laces, a pair of fingerless gloves with red skull designs, on his chest there is a spade that pulsates like a heart, and from this spade, random grey strings seem to spread all over his body.

Budou looks back at the man and defiantly says "you better get away from us right now, mister."

Cirno threateningly adds "you are in the presence of a very strong opponent. You don't want to make me angry now."

The man smirks and softly chuckles as a red glow escapes from under his hood, then raises his hands and reveals a black staff, emanating thick black magic from it, then twists the middle part of the staff to reveal two cracked red blades that make it look like a small, bloody scythe.

Cirno gulps with fear and stutters as she says "y-y-you b-b-better be c-c-c... careful! Y-y-y-you don't want to make me... m-mad!"

The man swings his weapon without hesitation, aiming straight at the bat's and fairy's necks, then a bright yellow barrier forms around the flinching girls before it hits, making the man tremble after his attack is reflected.

Phredia hovers right next to Budou, glaring dangerously at the man for a few seconds before turning to the girls and nodding.

Budou places her right hand on her chest, clears her throat, then suddenly starts to cry "mama~! Papa~! He tried to kill me~!"

The man stares at Budou with confusion, then says "how pathetic. I'll just kill your parents instead!"

From the other side of shore, a massive explosion frightens all the fairies away, and almost immediately after, the hooded man in black finds himself flying for dear life, while Ail and Sanae chase after him, shooting massive bullets straight at him, making him sway in the air to avoid being hit.

He looks back and notices Ail, then shouts "Ail! I found you! Prepare to... WHOA!"

His challenge falls on deaf ears, and all he can do is continue to fly away from the enraged boy and shrine maiden, getting hit by one of Sanae's red stars, then getting struck by one of Ail's exploding orange orbs, getting sent through the air to one of Gensokyo's farthest corners.

Moments later, Budou and Cirno find themselves being hugged by both Ail and Sanae, both giggling and Budou saying "thanks mama and papa! You're the best."

* * *

Later, at Eirin's Clinic, Ail opens up a gap directly inside the small waiting room and whispers "how is she?"

As he walks out of the gap, Rika walks to him from a nearby seat with a faint smile on her face, and says "she should be waking up at any-"

Before she can finish, they both flinch when they hear Meiling's loud voice coming from the examination room, shouting "what if he comes back tonight? No, I HAVE to go back, NOW!"

Ail and Rika look toward the closed door to the next room with surprise on their faces, then Ail says "oh, she's awake alright."

The door suddenly bursts open and Meiling storms out of the examination room, loudly saying "I am much stronger than I look, so I'll be just fine!"

From inside the room, Eirin sounds ominously calm as she says "sweetie~, if you neglect your health now, I'm going to have to give you a special treatment~!"

Meiling turns to look back inside the room, ready to give Eirin a piece of her mind, but before she can speak, she gasps, her hair stands on ends, her eyes expands, her iris shrink, then she finds herself running behind Ail and Rika with a terrorized expression.

Eirin walks out of the room with her ominous smiling face, looks straight at Ail, then asks "now, you aren't planning on interfering with the treatment, right?"

A cold chill creeps up Ail's spine, robbing him from his thoughts and preventing him from responding, so Rika steps up with a natural smile on her face and calmly says "it's alright miss Yagokoro. Please, if you'd be so kind as to give me the medicine, I'll make sure she follows your instructions to perfection."

Eirin looks at Rika for a few seconds and completely calms down, then smiles more naturally and says "alright miss Rika. Yours is a face I can trust."

Ail and Meiling look at each other and ask at the same time "but she can't trust mine?"

Eirin turns around to look into the examination room and says "Udonge, please bring the medicine for miss Hong."

Half a minute later, Reisen walks out of the room with a nervous smile on her face, offering the medicine to Rika and saying "please make sure she drinks one every twelve hours for two days."

Rika bows her head while smiling, then says "for two days. Don't worry, she'll do it, or I'll do it for her", then smiles, flaps her small wings, and giggles.

Eirin covers her face to hide her red cheeks and bleeding nose, Meiling smiles widely and whispers "so cute", Ail's face turns a bit pink, and Reisen smiles while she freezes in place, staring straight at Rika's face.

Rika looks back with concern, then asks "um, what's wrong?"

Reisen suddenly wraps her arms around the shrine maid, smiling while whispering "ah, miss Rika~"

* * *

Meanwhile, at the SDM, explosions, crashes, breaking glass, and all sorts of loud noises unsettle the peace of the normally quiet mansion.

Budou, Phredia and Cirno look to the mansion from te lake with curious faces, then Budou shrugs and says "mama must be having fun."

Inside the mansion, Reimu and Sanae fly down the great hallway and stop when in front of the clock tower doors.

Reimu shouts "Sakuya, it's me! Look, Remilia's very concerned for you, so why don't you just come out already."

Sanae quickly adds "miss Sakuya, please come on out. Let's have some tea and talk things over."

Nobody answers, and after waiting for a bit, Reimu says "alright, do it."

Sanae smiles and says "oh look, the doors miraculously opened up!", and the doors open up on their own.

When they look inside, they realize Sakuya isn't inside, so Reimu rushes in and looks up, making sure the top door isn't open.

She sighs and says "I don't know how, but she stopped time without my notice."

Sanae smiles sheepishly and asks "you can tell?"

Before Reimu replies, she and Sanae turn their attention back to the mansion's entrance after there is a loud crash, quickly accompanied by Flandre's scream of terror and Remilia's angry shouting.

Flandre and Rumia fly down the corridor to the dining room, both with tears in the eyes and knives all over their backs.

Flandre looks back and cries "but they are crumbs! We can't do anything about them!"

Rumia nervously adds "that's how it is!"

Sakuya flies after them, holding more knives on her left hand and throwing them with her right, shouting "that's no excuse! You are both LADIES and should behave as such!"

Flandre cries "wah~ Onee-sama, do something!"

Remilia flies after Sakuya with rage on her face as she shouts "Sakuya, that's enough! Stop picking on Flandre!"

Sakuya gasps and looks shocked, yet continues to fly after Flandre and Rumia as she cries "no~! I failed my lady again~! She's mad at me~!"

Flandre cries "just stop already Sakuya~!"

Rumia adds "I still haven't eaten the red and white one! I can't die yet!"

Remilia screams "Sakuya, you haven't failed me, dammit!"

They finally reach the dining room, where Flandre and Rumia despair and end up cowering on the farthest corner, trying their best to hide behind a large red curtain, but failing to do so.

Rumia trembles and nervously says "wh-where the hell is Agava when you need her?"

Flandre's tears rush out her eyes like large waterfalls as she cries "I want my onee-sama!"

Sakuya enters the room, but goes straight to the pantry, instead of finishing off the two blondes cowering in the corner.

Flandre and Rumia both look to where Sakuya is going, then follow after her just as Remilia enters the room.

They stop just before reaching the door down to the pantry, where they hear Agava's voice coming from below, saying "oh? Hey, miss Sakuya-maid lady~! Say, do you know where's the sake around here? Hey... what are you doing? KYAH~!"

The girls from outside can see a dozen knives fly to the open door and getting stuck on it.

Shortly after they all gulp, Agava runs out of the pantry, holding a drumstick, some sausages, and with her back covered in knives.

She runs toward Flandre and Rumia, and with tears in her eyes she cries "that maid is crazy~!"

She wears her usual, tight purple sleeveless ninja outfit with the tattered grey shorts and blue open jacket on top, her knee-high black boots and has her long black hair tied to a ponytail that reaches her waist.

Rumia embraces Agava and pats her head, and she and Flandre say at the same time "tell me about it", then Rumia takes a bite from one of the sausages Agava is holding.

Remilia stares angrily toward Agava and asks "what the hell were you doing in there? And what are you doing with my food?"

Agava turns her head around until her head is completely backwards, meeting her dark blue eyes with Remilia's scarlet eyes, then brazenly replies "eating it."

Remilia reaches for Agava's necks with her own hands, bearing her claws as she gets closer to her target, but she stops after a loud thud, then notices a large knife with a red and white hilt sticking out like an eyesore between the smaller blue and black hilted knives stuck on the open pantry door.

Remilia ignores Agava and decides to go down, but she feels a hand grab her shoulder and pull her back with force.

She turns around to complain with an angry face, but when she sees the one pulling her is Reimu, she settles down and steps aside after looking into the maiden's eyes, as if already knowing what she's thinking.

Reimu silently makes her way down the pantry, then disappears from view immediately after she takes a left turn after the short steps.

* * *

The pantry is dimly lit by a single candle on the main side of the room, which is just after the entrance.

The other segments of it are so dark, a lantern would be needed to see properly while in there.

Sakuya sits to the far left of the room with her back against a set of giant barrels, hugging her knees and burring her face between them.

Reimu sighs and approaches Sakuya, and without saying a word, she sits besides the chief maid and rubs her back.

Sakuya lets out a quick sob and says "what was I thinking? I am a human! Without my knives or my powers, I am nothing!"

Reimu sighs and asks "Sakuya, what happened? What did he do to you?"

Sakuya lets out another sob and looks at Reimu, revealing her tear-filled face, her puffy reddened eyes, and her usually elegant face expressing the look of a frightened child.

Reimu pulls Sakuya to her, allowing her to cry on her chest while saying "it's alright. You are not weak. But Sakuya, taking all of this out on yourself and those around you will not help."

Sakuya sobs on Reimu's chest, then manages to say "he was all over me! I was so scared! I just ran away... All I did was run. Reimu, I am weak!"

The chief maid starts to cry and sob again and her next words become slurred and unintelligible.

Reimu embraces Sakuya and gently brushes her short silver hair with her fingers, saying "shh, shh, it's alright my friend. But if you were feeling like this, why didn't you talk? I'll listen. And if not me, why not Patchouli, or Meiling... or even Remilia? They are your family!"

Sakuya sobs louder and tries to recovers her breath to speak, but only manages to stammer Reimu's name.

The maiden closes her eyes and continues to embrace Sakuya, until the maid finally manages to calm down and says "I failed them, Reimu. I am supposed to take care of them, but I couldn't! He could have killed me, then nobody could protect them! What good am I without my knives; without my powers?"

Reimu looks around while still holding on to Sakuya, trying to find words of comfort for her friend, yet they seem to escape her.

Reimu simply closes her eyes and tightens her embrace, then Meiling's voice seems to brighten the room as she says "that's no reason to break down, Sakuya Izayoi!"

Both Reimu and Sakuya turn their heads to the right and find Meiling standing tall next to the small steps with a bloodied bandage around her head.

With fire in her aquamarine eyes she rapidly approaches the girls, grabs Sakuya by her shoulders and lift her up to her feet.

She bends down a little so that she can be face-to-face with the chief maid, then says "you are not weak, Sakuya! You are a very strong human; stronger than many humans! Heck, you may even be as strong as miss Reimu, miss Sakuya, but if you feel you are weak, then you must get stronger!"

Sakuya slowly lifts her head and her tear-filled eyes to meet with Meiling's resolute eyes, then hesitates for a moment, looking to her left, but she forces herself to look at the gate guard once more.

Meiling stares back and sees the despair inside Sakuya's blue eyes, then says "train with me, miss Sakuya! Becomes stronger!"

Sakuya's tears suddenly stop, yet in her eyes there is still some doubt.

Meiling shakes her lightly and says "strengthen your body; allow me to teach you how!"

Doubt continues to cloud Sakuya's vision, until Remilia's stern, yet caring voice reaches her, saying "you will train with Meiling and get stronger. That is an order, Izayoi!"

Meiling lets go of Sakuya and straightens up as she turns around to look to the small steps, while Sakuya slowly moves to the left to get a better view of her mistress.

Remilia sits on the third step, crossing her legs and smiling mischievously as she says "do it and show me I didn't make a mistake all those years ago, when I made you my chief maid. And Meiling, you make sure she doesn't quit."

Sakuya stares back at Remilia with longing and admiration for a short moment, and as if synchronized with Meiling, they bow and say at the same time "as you wish, my lady!", though Sakuya still sounds a little doubtful.

Moments later, after they all exit the pantry, Sakuya being helped by Meiling, Rika approaches them and repeats the instructions for medicine Eirin gave the gate guard, making sure Sakuya hears them too.

Remilia and Reimu both walk out of the pantry together, but before they join the others, Remilia pulls on Reimu's left sleeve and hesitantly says "um... thanks... Reimu."

Reimu looks back at Remilia with curiosity at first, but then she smiles and nods.

* * *

Later that night, at the Kappa-pa resort, Nitori and Guzman stand next to the elevator that leads back outside.

Guzman is wearing a cowboy hat the turns white when he takes it off, and brown when he wears it on his head, his white jacket with a red shirt underneath, and over all, he's wearing a cloak that seems to turn him invisible, as well as his red ring and his gun.

Nitori smiles and says "have fun outside! I hope you find your friend. Oh, and if you find him, please bring him here! I would very much like to meet him!"

Guzman smiles widely, showing his teeth to Nitori, and sounding very friendly, he says "oh sure, sure! If I find him, I'll bring him over se we can all get well acquainted!"

Nitori gets a bit giddy and giggles while clenching her fists under her chin and swaying her body around.

Guzman smiles naturally, then pats her head and steps inside the elevator as soon as the doors open.

Nitori waves at him and says "bye~! Be good and be careful! Even with those items, youkai can still be dangerous for you!"

Guzman smiles back, winks, then says "I'll be back in one piece, my friend", and after that, the elevator doors close.

Inside the elevator, Guzman's friendly face changes to the malicious and twisted face of evil intent, and as soon as the doors open again at the surface, his face brightens up even more, and with that malicious smile, he steps right out of the elevator.

Back at the resort, Nitori's smile seems to brighten the immediate area as she looks around, thinking "all of this became possible thanks to him!"

A woman, wearing a red business suit that covers down to her knees, a pair of red slip-on shoes, a pair of golden specs over her lime-green eyes, pink lipstick on her lips and wearing her blond hair rolled up into a bun, approaches the little kappa.

Nitori looks at the woman with her bright smile, then says "Julia! So you finally decided to use the hologram again! How do you like it?"

Julia adjusts her glasses, then says "it's much more comfortable, and I don't feel like I will crash, unlike last time!"

Nitori giggles and says "great! The modifications worked!"

Julia stares neutrally at Nitori, who says "come on, it's time to do the rounds."

After being quiet for a while, Julia finally asks "you seem to be in a most pleasant mood, lady Nitori. What happened that has you in such bright spirits?"

Nitori giggles again and takes three quick steps away from Julia before stopping, placing her hands behind herself and winking at her while saying "I'm just so happy to have such a great friend like Guzman. I am also so happy about this place, my accomplishments... you! It's all so great and perfect! It's like I'm living in a dream!"

Julia manages to smile as she says "well, I am very glad you feel this way... Oh, what's this? I feel rather strange myself. It's as if I want to suddenly run and jump and smile, just like you, lady Nitori."

Nitori continues to smile as she gets closer to Julia, grabs her hand, then says "I installed emotions into you, Julia. Right now you feel happy because I am happy. That makes me feel even happier."

Tears run down Nitori's face, and Julia's smile is replaced by great concern as she asks "but why are you crying if you are so happy?"

Nitori signals Julia to continue walking with her, and as they make their way to their next destination, she says "you'll understand in time that not all tears are bad. These are tears of happiness!"

Julia sighs and says "emotions seem to be so complicated."

* * *

Outside, near the tengu's waterfall, Guzman looks up to the top with a disappointed and angry face, noticing the uproar with the tengu.

He growls inward and thinks "dammit, of all nights! Damned tengu sure know how to ruin my fun! Bah, I better go somewhere else."

As he makes his way back down the mountain and back to the forest, he looks to the sky and thinks "well, what should I do for fun now? Wait... if I remember correctly, there should be another shrine to the east! Yes, that's my next target! I'll go and pay a visit to that eastern shrine, ha~!"

Meanwhile, at the Hakurei Shrine, while Budou and Sanae sit in Genjii's back to watch the stars from the lake, inside the shrine, Ail, Reimu and Rika sit around the living room's table, having a serious discussion about what had happened at the SDM.

Reimu stares at Ail's eyes, then says "and she tells me he was wearing a pair of purple glasses over his eyes. That's all she could tell me."

Ail roars with rage as he punches the table and angrily says "Guzman! He followed me in here!"

Suika and Mima sit by the door's archway, listening quietly.

Suika takes a big gulp from her sake cup, looking seriously at Mima, who looks back equally serious.

Ail continues "that man is a monster! Reimu, we have to find him and get him the HELL out of here! What he did at the mansion is NOTHING!"

Rika, who sits next to Ail, looks at him and sternly says "calm down, mister Ail. Getting upset won't solve a thing."

She turns her attention to Reimu, then says "my lady, I wish to ask you to allow me the honor of helping mister Ail deal with this man!"

Both Reimu and Ail stare at Rika with surprise, while both Mima and Suika's faces look as though each just swallowed something unpleasant.

Back at the youkai forest, Guzman laughs heartily while avoiding the claws of a beastly fox youkai.

The youkai tackles him, yet Guzman doesn't even budge, while the youkai is repelled by a strange barrier.

Guzman smiles and shouts "come on! Is that all you got, you mangy mongrel! COME ON!"

The youkai roars with rage and immediately rushes to attack again.

Back at the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu stares at Rika and says "there's more about this than what you are telling. What are your reasons, Rika?"

Rika gulps and looks away, but quickly recovers and says "not only did that man hurt two friends, my lady. He's carrying that abominable weapon with him! I want to personally destroy it, turn it to pieces with my sword!"

Ail and Reimu both look concerned at Rika, then Ail says "even with magic on our side, he's no pushover. Don't underestimate him, for he will NOT underestimate you! He will come at full force, and I fear for you, Rika. I fear for all of you girls, even Sanae and Budou!"

Reimu looks at Ail with curious concern, then asks "why is that? What do you know?"

Ail sighs and says "he sees women as objects of pleasure. When he says he likes you, that means he'll try to take you before killing you."

Both Mima and Suika's faces get filled by an ominous shadow, then look with concern to Reimu.

Rika stands up and confidently says "more reason for me to help you! I can't allow that monster to do that to anyone!"

Reimu's face now shows urgency and great anger, and staring at Ail with this face, she says "before I agree to this, Rika Onkamikami... Ail will tell me more about-"

There is a loud explosion from a distance; a loud bang that catches everyone's attention.

All in the shrine are now alerted to danger, then Ail says to Reimu "I'll tell you on the way!"

* * *

Back at the Youkai forest, Guzman has the fox youkai on the ropes, making it back away with its tail between its leg, yet keeping it on his sight, edging the tired creature to attack.

He runs at the youkai and kicks its belly, making it yelp out loud as it flies to the air, and crashes its back against a tree.

After the creature falls back to the ground, Guzman snarls and with an ominous tone of voice he says "let's see what makes you tick, shall we?"

Guzman stops walking and smiles, then says "well, are you going to give me some sport on its stead?"

Around Guzman, eight more fox youkai with glowing red eyes surround him, all growling softly, threatening the human.

Instead of fear, this human feels excitement, and with a wide smile on his face, he says "well, come and get me then!"

All eight youkai rush to attack in unison, but then a girl shouts "you leave that human alone!", and razor sharp autumn leaves fly by the pack of youkai and scare them all away, including the first attacker.

From the left, sounding concerned, the girls asks "sir, sir! Are you alright?"

The girl is Shizuha Aki, and she looks with concern at the man with the cowboy hat and frameless purple glasses, who stands still and doesn't say a word.

Shortly after, Minoriko, her younger sister, runs to her sister and says "nee-san, there you are! Why did you...? Oh, did you save that man?"

Guzman's eyes narrow as his face twists with rage.

This girl took away his fun, and he's not happy about it.

Shizuha gets a little closer, though Minoriko pulls her back, whispering "there's something odd about him, nee-san."

Shizuha groans but stays put, then loudly asks "sir, are you alright?"

Guzman pulls his gun and points it at the girls, then fires a single shot, making them scream.

He sheathes his gun, presses the button in his ring under his cloak, then zips away, looking like a thin beam of light.

Minoriko shields her head with her forearms, trembling while she crouches as low as possible on the ground.

After calming down, she peeks and sees the strange man is gone, and after a loud sigh, she says "phew! Nee-san, what was that all about? ... Nee-san?"

Minoriko notices the body of her sister lying on the ground with her arms and legs spread apart, a blank stare on her face, and a steaming hole on her forehead.

Minoriko trembles and moves around her sister, whispering "nee-san? Nee-san? Wake up. ... NEE-SAN!"

Minoriko is now filled with fear; her sister doesn't reply or move.

Cold thorns make their way from her stomach up to her heart, and after she feels those thorns poking her every heart-beat, she shouts "nee-san! Nee-san wake up!"

Shizuha's body turns to dried, red autumn leaves, and a green spark that hovers above the ground for a moment gets inside the largest leaf.

After witnessing this, Minoriko grabs the leaf with her trembling hands and stares at it.

She places the leaf on her chest and begins to sob, and after taking a deep breath, with all her might, she screams "Shizuha~!"

Shizuha's name echoes all over the forest, reaching Hina who stares sadly into the river, watching as her sad reflection looks back from the calm waters, then sadly says "how unfortunate."

A tear escapes her left eye and falls to the water, rippling the calm waters and making the river move again, taking her sad reflection away with the currents.

* * *

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Budou, Phredia, Agava, and Guzman were created by Willie G.R.

Rika Onkamikami was created by Snapshot 2010

The hooded man in black was created by Hydroviper

AUG 25 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

*** = For more information on this event of Rika's and Tenshi's past, look for Sword x Sword (Ch. 3)**

**Yes, this is more my style... until the end. I do love happy things, but this particular "reality" we live in makes sure the happy leaves as soon as it comes. IT's sad, and I wish it weren't so... but it is. That last paragraph was something I wasn't even expecting to write. It just came to me and I thought that with this, you have a better idea as to how far this human can go... and he can go farther than this. Still, as they say: "It's always darkest just before dawn." Sometimes we all wish the dawn would come sooner. Thanks for reading and please leave a comment/review. I will be very grateful, especially concerning how I did with this chapter.**

**Also, thanks to an earlier review, I was able to at least make some parts clearer on chapter 1, though it's still hard to see a way to completely fix it. I will try to fix this, but please remember that we are all humans and not perfect, though... we can learn from our mistakes.**


	3. Chapter 3

It's a dark night at the Youkai forest in Gensokyo.

Inside one of the Kappa-pa resort's engine rooms, Nitori tightens the large bolt of a giant gear that moves five smaller gears that surround it, taking care of the waves of the artificial beach.

After tightening that bolt, she hurries and greases all the gears she can reach on the ground, then flies up to reach the rest, smiling so wide and brightly, it looks as though she's illuminating the room all by herself.

Julia's eyes look like a computer monitor, showing countless zeros and ones in green and white on a black background.

She closes her eyes, and when she opens them again, she now has her normal lime-green eyes, then she says "it's been calibrated, just as you asked, lady Nitori."

Nitori hovers from behind a large square machine with many colorful buttons and beams of light that course through it, smiling as she says "thank you very much, Julia. You may rest if you like."

Julia stays in place, staring back at Nitori and causing the kappa's smile to be replaced with curiosity.

Nitori stares back at Julia and asks "what's the matter? I-it's alright if you don't really want to rest."

Julia adjusts her glasses and stares straight at Nitori, then says "that cloak you gave him deflects magic spells, it can make the user invisible, it can even render charms and talismans useless, and amongst other things, it can make him impervious to physical damage for brief periods. That hat helps him keep calm and collected during stressful situations, protects his head from damage, and can cause a powerful wave that scrambles brainwaves, causing great discomfort to others, particularly those adept to magic."

Nitori frowns and asks "yes, and why are you telling me all this?"

Julia sighs and asks "why did you give him such dangerous things, lady Nitori?"

Nitori gets a bit angry, but manages to sound calm, though loud, as she says "I knew it! You don't trust him! Well I'll have you know I trust him so much, I daresay I'd trust him with my own life!"

Something inside Julia feels wrong after those words form Nitori.

She feels something tightening around her chest and stomach.

She manages to calm down, then says "lady Nitori, please understand I am only worried about your well being. Humans are easily swayed by power, and if you keep giving him more, he might-"

Furious, Nitori lets herself fall to the ground on her feet, then she rushes to Julia and stands right in front of her.

Their difference in size is now evident, Julia being at least one head taller than Nitori, making the little kappa look up with her furious eyes back at her computer assistant.

Angrily and loudly, Nitori says "for YOUR information, if he wanted to hurt me, he would have let me get cursed by Hina when I first met him! He is NOT a bad human! Look at Ail and Kyo! Look at Reimu, and even Marisa! They aren't perfect, but they aren't bad! Guzman is not perfect, but he isn't bad!"

Julia feels as though her body might come apart at any moment, a cold feeling taking over her limbs as she looks down to Nitori.

Sounding frightened, Julia replies "please, lady Nitori, there is something odd about him. I just can't figure out what. Please, give me permission to monitor him... for my peace of mind!"

Nitori's face turns red with rage, and after involuntarily snarling at Julia, she shouts "I can't believe this! Monitor him? Is he some kind of criminal now?"

Julia opens her eyes wide after seeing Nitori in this state, and concernedly says "lady Nitori, calm down! You heart-rate has accelerated to dangerous levels!"

Nitori continues to glare at Julia for a moment, then her eyes fill with tears.

She sobs and walks away from Julia, using her left sleeve to cover her face, and before she exits the room, she cries "I'm going to check on the elevator! Just g-go and rest, or whatever you want. Just don't follow me!"

After she leaves, she throws the door so hard, it makes a loud bang and bounces back open, and when Julia looks outside, she sees Nitori running away and sobbing, still covering her face with her sleeve.

Julia slowly exits the room and closes the door.

They were inside one of the large artificial mountains to the right side of the beach, which is camouflaged to perfection, though the door is a bit damaged, ruining the mountainous illusion.

Julia watches as Nitori gets away, then looks at her own left hand and places it on her chest, then says to herself "she was... happy before. Is it my fault she is so upset? And why do I feel so cold and weak? I don't like this feeling. I want her to be happy again."

* * *

Outside, on the eastern edge of Gensokyo, Reimu, Rika and Ail fly away from the shrine and quickly make their way toward the Youkai Forest.

As they make their way, Reimu loudly asks "Ail, can you tell us, how did you cross paths with this man, and what do you know about him?"

Rika looks intently at Ail as he takes a deep breath and loudly says "he hunted me down when I was in the outside world last time. He would always find me, no matter how hard I tried to hide."

FLASHBACK

_It's a dark night at the cement jungle known as the city, on the world outside of Gensokyo._

_ At some old-looking warehouses near the docks, Ail runs away from an unknown attacker that keeps shooting him from a long distance, keeping hidden in the darkness of night, while bullets whizz past Ail, some even grazing his shoulder and waist._

_ Ail pants as fear takes over his heart, then tries to run so fast, he slips and falls to the ground on his face, stopping his short slide on top of a dirty puddle._

_ Another bullet flies just above his head, startling him and making him stand up abruptly. _

_The moment he's on his feet and, he feels something hot drilling down on his right shoulder, making him scream loud, fall to the ground again, and gasping for air, all while trying to endure a burning pain that seems to course down to his right arm._

_ For Ail, it seems as though five minutes pass before he is able to get back up, when in reality, it's only been one._

_ The moment he recovers his bearings, he is surprised by Guzman, wearing that white jacket, those blue jeans, and those frameless purple glasses of his, smiling down on his victim._

_ With a malicious smile on his face, Guzman says "well, well, well. Look what we got here! A wanted felon with a juicy price on his head." _

_Guzman kneels down next to the frightened boy, points his gun at Ail's face, then says "you know, whether you are dead or alive, I still get paid. But you know something? I love hearing people scream in pain before they die by my hand, so why don't we get started right now? You scream, you die, I get paid, then we both continue on with our lives. Oops... Well, I guess one of us does." _

_Ail manages to get up to try and run, but Guzman points his gun and shoots the boy, landing a bullet on his right calf and making him crash back down to the ground, hard._

_ Ail twitches and clenches his teeth, breathing through them so as not to scream and please that monster that stands beside him. _

_Sounding disappointed, Guzman says "aww, you don't want to scream? Well then, why don't I break some bones? That should make you scream!"_

_ Guzman tries to grab Ail's left leg, but the boy falls though the ground itself, then disappears._

_ Shocked, Guzman stands still for a moment, leaving his gripping arm static for a moment, then slowly gets back up, growling inward while looking enraged. _

_His face suddenly changes, and a wicked smile replaces the rage present only a second before, then Guzman cackles, holding his abdomen with his left hand and placing his gun on his forehead, cackling as though mad._

_ He suddenly stops and looks at the ground where Ail was with that wicked smile of his, then says "it's been a while since I had to HUNT for my pray! LET THE GAMES BEGIN, AIL!"_

FLASHBACK END

Rika looks with pain toward Ail as they continue their flight while Ail says "I managed to escape him a few times, but he finally caught me sleeping in an abandoned warehouse. That's where he shot me in the abdomen. I knew I was dead then, but that's when Marisa summoned me back. It seems the summoning rift swallowed him as well."

Reimu looks back at Ail with terrified and angry eyes, while Rika looks at him with bravery and honor.

Ail continues "I learned a lot about him while I ran. Apparently, he isn't even from around here! He was deported from his native lands, then he started hunting other people under the guise of being a mercenary for hire."

Reimu continues to stare with that enraged and terrified face as Ail continues "all those he hunted down were killed by him in a most brutal way, and if they were women, AND more importantly, if he liked them... well, some were left alive, but were found ruined, and with broken spirits."

Rika gasps while Reimu's eyes seem to fill with fire and determination, then she suddenly says "there's a fowl feeling in the air!"

Rika holds her chest and says "I feel it too!"

Ail suddenly looks down and narrows his eyes, focusing on the dark road below, then gasps and looks back.

Without warning, he shouts "he's going to the shrine! Budou, Sanae!", then opens a gap an hurries inside.

The gap closes up before Reimu or Rika can reach it, Reimu shouting "WAIT! Ail! UGH!"

Reimu and Rika hear the loud cries of Minoriko coming from the forest, and as if knowing what she's thinking, Reimu rushes back to the shrine, shouting "come back to the shrine as SOON as you're done."

Rika continues to the forest and shouts back "you be careful, my lady!"

* * *

Ail's gap opens up right in front of the stairs that lead up the mountain to the Hakurei Shrine, then Ail himself jumps straight out of the gap and stands bravely in front of said stairs.

He glares to the darkness for a short moment, then suddenly shouts and places his hand out in front of himself, as if pushing something back.

Immediately, the zip that is Guzman stops in front of Ail with a surprised face, feeling as though he just crashed against a sturdy, yet soft wall, and is being bounced back.

He skids to a halt and reveals himself, though not by choice, and when he realizes Ail is standing in front of him, glaring at him with a resolute and brave face, he smiles and excitedly shouts "Ail, the one that got away! I FOUND you!"

Without saying a word, or waiting for another moment, Ail's right hand glows white, and from his bracelet, a large staff forms up and seems to floats around his open palm.

Ail grips the magical weapon while Guzman says "I see. You want to dance. You know, I'm so glad I know you so well, seeing as you're always so quiet when I'm around. Ah well, what do you say-?"

Before he finishes speaking, Ail is already rushing at him with the staff of light raised high above his head, glaring at him with all intention of stopping him from reaching the shrine by any means necessary.

Guzman smiles an intercepts the weapon with his bare hands, and even though the staff burns him, he smiles and says "that's what I like! ACTION!"

Guzman easily raises Ail above his own head, using his own staff against him, then slams him hard against the ground, cancelling Ail's weapon upon impact.

Guzman laughs and says "as pathetic as ever!"

Ail is already standing on his feet by the time the bit of smoke clears, holding a spell card on his right hand and shouting "Brightness, Overwhelming Heart!"

Fast rings of pure light emanate from Ail's heart, accompanied by large white magical orbs, all moving around each other in an uneven manner.

Guzman stares at the spell with a neutral face, seemingly unimpressed by the attack, then turns his back on Ail.

He suddenly smiles and spreads open his seemingly invisible cloak and shouts "BACK AT 'SHA, BOY~!"

The first ring touches Guzman's mirror cloak, then bounces back and the entire spell seems to head straight back at Ail.

He takes notice of this in time to absorb his own spell, but while he does, Guzman unsheathes his gun and walks straight to him, slowly raising it and pointing it at his head.

Ail finishes absorbing his spell and opens his eyes to see Guzman standing right in front, pointing that gun right between his eyes.

Ail clenches his teeth and snarls, then Guzman smiles, bearing his teeth as he asks "hey Ail, did you like my bullets? Want to experience that all over again? Tell you what, if you scream this time, I might be merciful and kill you a little quicker that what I would normally do."

Ail quickly ducks and aims a punch straight at Guzman's gut, but he suddenly stops, his eyes open up widely and starts to tremble.

His right shoulder feels like it's on fire, his left calf feels as though it's breaking apart, and just above his abdomen, he feels as though something is drilling its way in and out of his body over and over.

Ail grunts and drops to the ground, gasping for air, thinking Guzman will take advantage of him, now that he is in such state, and that's when he looks up and notices Guzman's gun is emanating a thick, dark energy.

Guzman smiles so maliciously, Ail feels a cold chill wrap around his heart, and after grunting again, Guzman wickedly whispers "do you like it? I'm no fool, Ail. I know damn well about magic. You see, my gun is special. Inside this lovely hilt, there is a spell, and do you know what this spell does?"

Ail tries with all his might to get back up, but Guzman kicks him hard on his stomach, making Ail yelp in pain, and after the boy forcefully rolls away, he whispers "that's right, boy. It makes you experience the bullets as though you are living through the experience again and again and again... it can even-"

Before he finishes, he bends down and avoids Reimu's downward sky kick that comes from behind and breaks his focus, giving Ail a much needed respite.

Reimu now stands between Ail and Guzman, holding her gohei sideways across her face on her right hand, her talismans and needles on her left, and glaring defiantly at the human in front of her.

Guzman smiles, looks at Reimu from her feet up, and with a lustful smile he says "well, another hot girl. Ail, you lucky dog, you were living in paradise and never told me about it! HAH!"

Reimu speaks in a dangerously menacing undertone, saying "I'll be confiscating your toys before kicking you straight out of these lands."

Guzman smiles, bows, points at Reimu then says "and I'll be having YOU before you even realize it!"

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Youkai Forest, Rika lands close to where she thinks she heard the cries before, but she can only see countless red leaves on the ground.

She quietly moves forward, trying to see through the darkness between the trees, then stops when she hears some soft sobs.

She reaches a small clearing, and sitting with her back against at large rocky mound to the right, Minoriko holds the leaf her sister's spirit resides on close to her chest, gently rubbing it while sobbing and looking to the sky with blank eyes.

Rika reveals herself and softly asks "miss, are you alright?"

Minoriko looks at Rika with terror, then whispers "stay back. We-we're gods! You should be... afraid."

Rika bends down until she's kneeling on the ground, then takes baby steps toward Minoriko, saying "my name is Rika Onkamikami, a maid of the Hakurei Shrine. I am here to help you."

Rika takes her time getting closer to Minoriko, raising her hand just slightly, showing she means no harm.

Minoriko shivers and curls up, doing her best to keep the leaf intact while she hugs her knees, looking at Rika through the corner of her left eye.

Rika is now inches away from her, but stops before getting too close, then gently whispers "it's ok. I'm here to help. Please, tell me what's wrong."

Minoriko lifts her head to look into Rika's sky blue eyes, and like a miracle, she completely calms down.

She slowly uncurls and reaches for Rika's hand, whispering "Shizuha. Nee-san is gone."

Their hands finally touch, and Rika quickly, but gently, pulls Minoriko to her, asking "what happened to miss Shizuha, miss Minoriko?"

The young goddess can't help but quickly embrace Rika, knocking her own hat off, and starts sobbing on her chest, crying "man... A man... purple glasses. She saved a man and he killed her!"

Rika rubs the goddess' head, and an inexplicable surge of anger slowly rises from her stomach and up to her head.

Minoriko raises her teary eyes and presents Rika with Shizuha's leaf, saying "he used a loud exploding weapon. I panicked, but Shizuha... When I got up... she had a h-hole on her head."

Rika grabs Shizuha's leaf and immediately after she does, she finds herself lifting it above her head to keep it from being crushed by Minoriko's embrace.

The young goddess cries on Rika's chest for a little longer, then stops and slowly backs away with a curious teary face.

Rika has activated her Soraogan mode, and the clouds in her eyes calm Minoriko down even more.

With a sweet, yet stern voice, Rika says "come with me to the shrine! I'm going to help you and your sister, but before that, my lady is in danger."

Without warning, Rika grabs Minoriko tightly around her waist, then lifts to the air, making Minoriko scream in surprise.

When they are above the trees, Rika offers the leaf back, which Minoriko immediately accepts, then says "I'll make that man pay for what he's done!"

Minoriko looks at Rika's determined and courageous face, making her own tears stop, sniffles, then looks forward and says "I'll lend you some of my power. We'll can get there faster."

A yellow glow radiates around Minoriko and slowly surrounds Rika as well, and before long, Rika finds herself flying almost as fast as Reimu herself as she hurries back to her mistress, whom she fears may be in danger.

* * *

At the bottom of the stairs to the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu moves fast as she tries to lure Guzman away from the unconscious Ail, throwing talismans and needles all over.

Guzman manages to avoid the talismans using all sorts of acrobatics, trying to intimidate Reimu, yet Reimu demonstrates how nimble her own body is as she avoids all of his punches and kicks, all aimed at her lower torso and back.

Reimu roars and shouts "you disgusting ape! Hell will freeze ten times over before I let you touch me!"

Guzman smiles as he rushes straight forth toward Reimu with his right hand raised and shouts "then I hope they can get used to the cold down there! You're MINE!"

Reimu nimbly dodges Guzman's grip, and after getting away from him, she throws all the needles she holds on her hand straight at his face.

Guzman smacks his left thigh, smiling wide as he does, then all of Reimu's needles turn around and fly back to her.

Reimu counters them with her own talismans and manages to stop her needles from hitting her instead, but when she glares back at Guzman, she realizes he's nowhere to be found.

Not taking any chances, Reimu keeps her guard up, looking all around herself as she moves back to where Ail is, then throws a kick behind herself.

She yelps and whimpers when her foot makes contact with something other than Guzman's face, and before she can recover, Guzman takes the chance, reveals himself, then kicks Reimu hard on her lower back, making her roll away and land on her feet, though wincing from the pain on her foot and lower back.

He frowns as he looks at her and says "drat, I missed. I was aiming lower."

Reimu scoffs and angrily says "I'll make sure you regret ever laying eyes on me!", then jumps straight back at him with a powerful kick.

Guzman smiles confidently, knowing he's well protected, then suddenly feels the air leave him after something hard impacts his stomach.

When he looks down, he notices Reimu's foot passed through his protective barrier, and the impact is so great, it looks as though it's sinking into his abdomen.

Guzman clenches his teeth, his face turns red with rage, then he grabs Reimu by her calf before she can recover from the attack, and swing's her like a doll above his head, gripping her so tight she can't break free before he strikes her head against the hard ground and leaving her semi-conscious.

He swings her above his head again, making sure her body is limp enough after striking her head on the ground a second time, then slams her on the ground a third time, making sure she's not gonna get back up, then throws her toward Ail's body, making her roll and slide before she finally stops right next to Ail.

Up at the shrine, Sanae and Budou sit next to the small table, Sanae calmly saying "I wonder what's keeping them."

Mima and Suika sit by the porch, looking seriously at the night sky, then Suika, with great effort, calmly says "I'm sure they'll be back shortly."

A strange energy pulsates all around the shrine, making everyone gasp in surprise, then Budou excitedly asks "what was that?"

Mima and Suika spring to their feet and shout at the same time "REIMU!", then rush down the stairs, leaving Budou and Sanae with confused faces inside the shirne.

Back down the stairs, Reimu can barely stand up, breathing heavily while trying to keep her balance, and watching with disgust as Guzman smiles while he sniffs his hands and says "mmm, what a lovely smell. I haven't had one as sweet-smelling as you for a long time."

Reimu growls inward, then prepares to attack again, making Guzman smile with a lustful face, awaiting to have her on his hands again.

His smile vanishes when Suika and Mima both appear out of nowhere and fly beside Reimu, their eyes glowing bright as their faces look twisted with raging anger.

Guzman gasps, but quickly raises his left hand and presses a small button on the left-side brim of his cowboy hat, causing the hat to emanate a powerful sound wave that stops all three girls on their tracks, and even making Ail wake up and scream while holding his head.

Suika and Mima scream in pain while rolling on the ground, same as Ail, but Reimu feels heavy and unable to control her own limbs, then ends up falling on her face to the ground while flailing her arms and legs.

Guzman's sickening lustful smile returns when Reimu falls so close to him, so he wastes no time in rushing to her, turning her around, then sitting on top of her.

His smile widens as he prepares his hands, then forcefully takes off Reimu's sleeves.

From the sky, Rika screams "no~! Get away from her!"

When Guzman turns around, he realizes Rika is already next to him, aiming her sword straight at his heart and ready to kill him, but both the powerful magnet and barrier around him push Rika's sword away from him and turn straight to Reimu.

Rika notices in time, and in a split second, she veer her sword away, lets it go, then tackles the man right off the maiden.

Before Guzman can recover and stand, Rika is already jumping on him again, raising her hand and trying to punch his face.

The barrier protects him from the full impact, but he can still feel the intensity of her attacks.

He bends his knees under Rika, and using every ounce of his strength, he pushes her off and sends her flying to the air.

Rika takes this as an opportunity to reach for her sword again, which lies on the ground next to Reimu, so she wills herself to fall close to Reimu and grab the sword, then realizes Guzman is no longer there.

Rika looks around, agitated and furious, breathing through her mouth, shouting "Minoriko, stay up there!"

Minoriko answers from the sky with a quick nod, then Rika's sword roars with fury and Rika swings it hard to her left, causing Guzman to reveal himself again and jump away.

Rika is besides herself with anger, even though she repeats in her mind "anger clouds your judgment, Rika. You have to calm down!"

Guzman smiles and opens his mouth to speak, but they are both caught by surprise when the first light of the sun breaks through the deep night darkness.

Guzman continues to smile while looking at Rika, then says "I must say, I wasn't expecting you... to-"

As he stares into Rika's eyes, the calm clouds that lazily seem to move inside her already light sky blue eyes seems to mesmerize him.

Inside his mind, he hears children laughing, and a woman, with a warm and motherly voice, calling out for her children, saying "kids~, dinner~."

Guzman starts to gasp for air and feels as though all his strength is being sapped by the very ground he's standing on.

He tries to look away from Rika, but suddenly grabs hold of his head and covers his ears, then screams out loud before shouting "shut up! SHUT UP~!"

Rika's sword roars and Rika immediately rushes to him, hoping she can take him out for good, but Guzman is no fool, and before she can get close enough, he manages to pull out his gun with his right hand and fires three random shots, but since he is unable to look at her, all of his shots miss miserably.

He realizes he just wasted his ammunition, so he presses the button on his left hand ring by pushing it against his head, then runs away with all the speed he can summon.

Rika watches as he runs at great speed to the Forest of Magic and thinks of chasing after him, but her concern for Reimu makes her turn around and call for her mistress with terror in her voice.

Minoriko slowly floats down, still holding on to her sister's leaf, then asks "i... is she-?"

Rika manages to calm down after gulping her heart back down to her chest, then nods and says "sh-she's alright!"

Mima and Suika groan as they get back up on their feet, and when they lay their eyes on Reimu, they both recover instantly and rush to aid her.

Rika quickly says "she's fine! Please, help mister Ail! He's not moving!"

From the shrine's stairs, Budou shouts "PAPA~!", and Sanae shouts "what the hell happened here?", while they jump right off the stairs and fly right next to Ail, kneeling beside him immediately after touching the ground, gently rubbing his hair and arms, hoping for a sign of life from him.

* * *

Later, up at the shrine, after the sun fully rises, Reimu wakes up inside a futon in her room, and immediately springs up on her seat, screaming and throwing a few talismans in self-defense, though they just fly to a wall and stick to it like knives.

Reimu looks around, recovering her bearings, then notices Rika sits to her left, crying out of concern.

Rika places a gentle hand on Reimu's bandaged head, and after sighing with relief, she says "it's ok my lady. He's gone."

Frightened, Reimu asks "what about Ail? Is he alright?"

Rika grabs Reimu and hugs her tight, closing her eyes as she whispers "yes, he's alright. My lady, I'm so sorry."

Reimu wants to complain and demand Rika to let go, but when her maid sniffles, she calms down as Rika says "I tried to hurry, but miss Minoriko was very upset, and even with her help, I couldn't get here in time to help you!"

Reimu sighs and says "Rika, calm down. Don't break down on me. We all did our best, but it seems it just wasn't enough... still, why does my head hurt so much?"

Ail stands inside the room, right in front of the slightly open sliding doors and says "he tried to break your head open."

From outside, Sanae shouts "Ail, you pervert, get out of her room this instant!"

Blind rage enters him, then Ail looks back at Sanae with raging anger and shouts "Sanae, there's no time for this crap!"

Sanae gasps, immediately quiets down, and looks away, then Ail gets closer to Reimu and says "tell me where it hurts."

Reimu looks at Ail with confusion, then points at the left of her head, right where the dried blood on the bandage is.

Ail looks at Rika and says "Rika, heal her. I'll help you."

Without waiting for explanations, Rika places her mint-green glowing hand on Reimu's head, then Ail places his hand on Rika's, making the glow intensify.

Almost immediately, Reimu smiles and says "hey, the pain is gone."

Looking tired as he backs away again, Ail says "Sanae, you have to forgive me, but now is not the time for leisure. We all need to take care of each other, to be at our best, or he is going to win. Reimu, he destroyed Shizuha's body, and we need your help to restore her."

Reimu looks at Ail and asks "what happened to you? You were in so much pain."

Ail looks away, making Reimu leap out of her futon in her sleeping robe, angrily asking "what the hell happened Ail?"

Mima suddenly phases from beneath the floor and gives Reimu a hug, shouting "Reimu~! You're awake! I was so worried about you!"

Ail sighs and says "it seems Guzman knows about magic. His gun has been infused with very dark magic."

Sanae gasps from the living room, then Ail continues "he can make it so anyone who's been shot by him experiences the bullet wound all over again."

From outside, Sanae anxiously asks "wait, even after being removed? And after all this time too?"

Ail nods, sweating as he remember the pain all over again, then says "he is far more dangerous than I had initially thought."

Mima looks curiously at Reimu and Ail, then says "dangerous? He ran away crying like a girl after he saw Rika!"

Reimu turns around to stare at Rika along with Ail, making the shrine maid feel a bit uneasy.

Before Rika speaks, from outside the shrine, Budou shouts "papa, is Hakurei sis awake? Miss Minoriko won't stop crying, and it's getting kind of awkward!"

Ail sighs and rubs his forehead, then says "look, let's help restore Shizuha. I'll make us some breakfast afterward, then we can discuss about what to do. Though for now, I think it's best if we recover first."

Reimu nods, then points Ail out the door, but before he closes the door after exiting, she looks at him and says "Ail, I know what you are thinking. It's too dangerous to risk her life like that."

Ail slowly closes the sliding door and doesn't reply, focusing on Shizuha's restoration.

* * *

Outside, on the back of the shrine's ground, Minoriko clings on to Suika for comfort, crying on her shoulder, while Budou stands on Suika's horns, as though she using them as a perch.

Ail, Reimu, Sanae and Rika all stand surrounding a white magical circle, and in the middle of this circle is Shizuha's leaf.

Mima flies above them, moving as though she's dancing elegantly, swaying her arms around before clapping them together and separating them, creating a colorful rainbow that rains some yellow energy sparks on to the leaf, making it and the circle glow.

Reimu and Sanae nod, then each starts to dance as though perfectly synchronized, though Reimu dances clockwise, and Sanae counterclockwise.

Ail and Rika close their eyes and concentrate their energy on their hands, then bend down and touch the circle, Ail on the left, and Rika on the right.

Even though it's morning, the back of the shrine grounds brighten up so much, they illuminate the mountain, the spark of light being visible even from the village.

At the shrine, as the light dims down, Minoriko gasps with excitement and calls "nee-san, can you hear me?"

The light completely vanishes, Ail and Rika open their eyes, Reimu and Sanae end their dance, and Mima stops sprinkling the grounds with her magic.

Minoriko looks to the circle with expectation, but her smile quickly turns to a frown and she cries "nee-san, no~!"

The magical circle is gone, but instead of Shizuha's body, all they managed to accomplish was to turn the leaf black.

Ail looks up at Mima and angrily shouts "Mima, did you curse her?"

Mima panics and nervously says "no-no-now don't be ridiculous! I was merely helping with the energy flux! She's a goddess after all!"

Reimu and Sanae look at each other, and looking disappointed, they ask at the same time "maybe it's because we serve different gods?"

Reimu and Sanae narrow their eyes and glare at each other, then say at the same time "hey, stop copying me!"

Before they start fighting, Minoriko's crying gets their attention.

The young goddess sobs inconsolably next to Suika, then Budou jumps off Suika's horns and sits next to Minoriko, offering a comforting embrace along with Suika.

Ail and Rika approach the leaf and lift it off the ground, both holding it gently.

Ail looks at Rika and with a cracked voice, he says "m-maybe he did kill her."

Rika takes the leaf and places it on her chest, then says "n-no... you're wrong. I-if she were dead, all these beautiful autumn leaves would die with her."

Ail gulps and a tear escapes his left eye, and after it touches the ground, he says "y-yeah... maybe she just needs m-more time to rest, right?"

Rika's tears reach the leaf as she says "but she's a goddess. Sh-she should be alright by now!"

The black leaf absorbs Rika's tears, the tears from Ail seem to send tiny white sparks at it, and all is accompanied by the faith being presented by both Rika and Ail as well, then slowly, the leaf turns brown, then to red, and finally, it start to glow.

Only Mima seems to notice, as Reimu and Sanae keep glaring at each other, Suika and Budou continue to comfort the crying Minoriko, and Ail and Rika close their eyes and seem to be concentrating on their thoughts.

There is a sudden whirring sound coming from the leaf, getting everyone's, save Rika's and Ail's attention, and after a sudden blinding flash, Shizuha's restored body appears sleeping on Rika's arms.

Mima opens her eyes again and exclaims "she's alive again!"

Everyone else open their eyes, then Minoriko springs on her feet and shouts "NEE-SAN!"

Ail and Rika slowly open their eyes and realize what happened.

Rika had activated her Soraogan mode, while Ail's ethereal dragon wings and night-sky eyes are also active.

They both gasp when they realize this, then gasp louder when they notice Shizuha is on Rika's arms, moaning softly as she starts to wake up.

She weakly looks at Ail and Rika, then whispers "thank you", then falls back to sleep.

Minoriko jumps between then, crying tears of joy and saying "thank you! Thank you both so much!"

The crystal on Rika's sword hilt glows intense blue two times, while Rika and Ail giggle and rub Minoriko's head, knocking her hat off to the ground.

Aya perches on a nearby tree right behind Sanae and aims her camera at this touching moment, smiling and saying "Yin and Yang. What makes a god spark. Yes, it's the perfect headline."

She finally gets her chance, and with a click of her camera, she gets a good picture of Ail and Rika holding on to Shizuha while being surrounded by Minoriko and everyone else.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Forest of Magic, Guzman drops to his knees, trembling and keeping his eyes wide open and unblinking.

He clenches his teeth and breathes though his mouth, then holds his head again, knocking off his cowboy hat, then shouts "why?"

He remembers the laughing children in his mind, the motherly call for a disembodied woman, then a loud explosion.

He screams as though in pain, his voice echoing all over the forest, unsettling Rinnosuke, waking up Marisa in a frightful yelp, scaring Shanghai and Hourai into hugging Alice's neck so tight they almost cut her breath, startling the three mischievous fairies, who hide in their own rooms in fright, even in the safety of their home, and causing several youkai to either run away, or get closer to him.

Guzman gasps with every breath until he finally recovers, then scowls and clenches his teeth, and speaking as though enraged, he says "that devil! That DEVIL woman! How? How did she do that? That was gone; that was no longer there! She did it! She did this to me!"

As Guzman speaks to himself, a strange and bulky youkai with red fur all over his body, a large white horn that arcs upward on the center of his forehead, long orange hair and wearing a ragged cloth for cover, makes his way to the seemingly broken human.

Unaware of the youkai, Guzman continues "I can't fight her again. I only have four shots left! That Ail. ...His luck saved him from me! And that maiden. Who the hell is she? She has so many damned bodyguards!"

The youkai makes his way to Guzman as quietly as he can, and after he's in reach he rapidly bares his claws and launches his hand at the back of the human's head.

The instant the hand gets too close, Guzman moves to the left and turns around, grabs that hand, immediately noticing their difference in size, Guzman's own hand looking miniscule in comparison.

Even with their size differences, Guzman uses that youkai's hand and throws him over his head and slams him hard against the ground, then grabs two of his fingers and immediately there are two loud cracks and the roar of pain from the youkai on the ground.

Guzman stomps down hard on the youkai's horn, making it dizzy on the ground, then pulls out his gun and shoots him once on the head.

Staring at the youkai with hatred, he activates the dark magic in his gun, making the creature roar loud, the pain from the shot repeating itself over and over, and very suddenly, there is a loud and disturbing bang and the blood of the youkai spreads all over Guzman's hate filled face.

The youkai's body lies limp on the ground without its head, while Guzman slowly straightens up and wipes as much blood from his face as he can with his left hand, then growls and says to himself "next time, I'll do the same to you Ail... and those maidens... these last three shots are for them."

Guzman takes his frameless purple sunglasses from his right pocket and puts them on, then slowly makes his way back the same way he came, leaving the youkai's body to stain the grass red.

* * *

At Nitori's resort, Nitori sits behind a large desk in a small room that looks like a windowless office, crossing her arms and pouting while leaning back against the large armchair she sits on.

There is a knock on the door but Nitori doesn't answer, so the woman outside calls "lady Nitori, are you there?"

Nitori closes her eyes, sighs loudly and long, then sounding a bit annoyed, she replies "yes, I'm here. What's the matter, Julia?"

Julia slowly opens the door, and cautiously enters the room with a very concerned face.

Still pouting, Nitori looks up at Julia and says "I'm not mad anymore. Just a bit sore."

Julia nods and closes the door immediately after entering the room, then looks away as she says "l-lady Nitori. I came to inform you that mister Guzman hasn't returned, and ask if you wish for me to search for him."

Nitori closes her eyes and sighs, then straightens up and says "no, it's alright. He said he would be out for a few days."

Julia looks at Nitori's disappointed eyes as she continues "that's why I gave him all those. So that he could be safe while out there."

Julia lowers her head, then says "I am so sorry, lady Nitori. I shouldn't have-"

Nitori raises her hand, lightly smiles, then says "it's alright. Let's just drop the subject for now."

Julia bows her head, then immediately asks "so, why won't you go to the vault? I thought you were eager to work on that Rainbow Generator, so we could all surf on rainbows."

Nitori giggles, then places her elbows on her desk and rests her head on her hands while still looking up at Julia.

Smiling, though sounding a little sad, she says "nah, I don't want to go down there today. Rainbow surfing can wait a bit longer."

There is an awkward silence between the two for a moment, so Julia decides to retire, so she bows to Nitori and says "then I'll take my leave, lady Nitori. Please call for me if you need anything."

Nitori fakes a smile as she looks back up at Julia, then her holographic assistant turns into floating green ones and zeros before disappearing.

Nitori sighs again, straightens up, then reaches for a lever under her chair, making the back drop down, and turning it into a bed that's big enough for her.

After accommodating herself, she stares at the roof and wonders about Guzman's well being, and as she drifts to a peaceful sleep, she whispers "Guzman, come back soon."

* * *

At the Hakurei Shrine, on the roof, there is large keystone lodged on the edge closes to the donation box.

Inside, Shizuha lies inside a futon on the floor in the shrine's living room, and kneeling beside her are Budou and Minoriko, who gently combs her sister's hair with her fingers.

To their left, Ail, Sanae and Reimu sit around the small table, while Aya, Mima and Suika sit to the right of the table, and Rika, Hatate and Tenshi are in the kitchen, the celestial and tengu fighting over who helps Rika first.

Reimu speaks up, saying "that human is more dangerous than you and I first anticipated, Ail. He's ruthless, he doesn't care for anything at all, and worse of all... he's a disgusting swine!"

Sanae wraps a gentle left arm around Ail's neck and grabs his right hand with hers, then says "danmaku is no use, direct attacks are no use either, and he'll go out of his way to use girls as toys."

Ail adds "and now we also know he does know a bit of magic too."

Budou flies straight to Ail and clings to the back of his head, then nervously says "papa, you must not get close to him! He must not hurt papa!"

Ail chuckles and says "it's alright Budou, you don't have to be so frightened. It's just a magical illusion after all, so it won't really harm me, even if it does feel like I'm being shot all over again."

Rika places a tray with teacups on the table, and as she sits down, she angrily says "but it still causes great mental strain, mister Ail! It would be prudent to let me handle him!"

Reimu stares with terror at Rika, but the maid stares back with resolve and says "he's afraid of me, my lady! Let's use this to our advantage!"

Now everyone in the room stares with fright at Rika, who naturally gets angry and loudly says "I am not a weak little girl! I can fight, and I can defend myself against him, and if I can get my hands on the gun, I'll make sure it becomes a pile of junk! Please, my lady, let me handle this!"

Reimu sighs, then says "Rika, we don't doubt your abilities, we are just worried."

Mima immediately adds "yeah! Look at what he did to Reimu! Anyway, what if that scare was just a lucky break? What then?"

Rika twitches, then looks down to the table, feeling defeated and unable to reply, so Tenshi steps up and drops the cookie tray on to the table and loudly says "don't you worry your pretty little heads! I'll make sure that Guzman, whoever he is, never even touches Rika!"

The shrine maid looks up at Tenshi with a bright smile and whispers "thank you, Tenshi."

Aya suddenly says "well then, I, the great Shameimaru, will use my amazing intuitive investigations skills and find this human for you!"

Reimu loudly says "don't confront him Aya. Investigate all that you can, and see if you can find out where he got all those weird protections and gadgets! If we can find the source, maybe we can cripple his defenses a bit!"

Hatate suddenly shouts "oh no! There's NO way I'm letting that bird get all the glory! I'm going to find out everything you need to know before Aya can even BEGIN to think where to start."

Reimu stares at Hatate with an annoyed face, then shows a small piece of paper that reads "way ahead of you", then says "she left while you were gloating."

Hatate gasps and runs outside, shouting "don't worry miss Rika, I'll get as much information I can~!", then flies away as fast as she can.

Rika blushes and scratches her right cheek, then asks herself "wasn't she talking to miss Reimu?"

Reimu sighs and says "now that those two left, Ail, what do you suggest we do?"

Before Ail answers, Shizuha groans loudly as she sits up, Minoriko worriedly saying "wait nee-san, take it easy."

With some effort, Shizuha looks angrily toward the table and softly says "that man's soul is tainted to the point that it enjoys the darkness, and craves more. We will hunt him down and take him out, before he does irreparable damage."

Ail, Sanae, Reimu and Rika stare concernedly at Shizuha, who raises her voice as she angrily says "I am a goddess, first and foremost! I can't allow a being like that to walk so freely! What if he finds the village? He's going to make it his own playground, and you know this, mister Anilan!"

Ail looks down and gulps, then says "she's right. We'll have to take caution though."

Reimu nods and replies "we do not know what other artifacts he may possess."

Rika continues to stare at Shizuha, then says "I have faith in you, miss Shizuha, but you still need to rest."

Shizuha laughs and smiles proudly, clenching her fist in the air as she stands up and loudly says "your faith in me is strong, miss Rika! It'll give me all the strength I'll need and more! Ha-ha-ha~"

Moments later, the young goddess' legs start to tremble, then she falls back down to the futon, then Minoriko smiles sheepishly and says "I'll make sure she rests plenty before we do any hunting."

Shizuha whimpers, then Tenshi says "alright, it's settled. I'll guard Rika while we search for that man and keep an eye on him, and you guys collect information and all that junk, so we can beat him to a pulp!"

Rika immediately adds "and I want to make sure that gun becomes nothing more than a memory! Then I'll make sure he pays for hurting our friends and laying his hands on my lady Reimu!"

The intensity of her words frighten even Tenshi, and although she notices the surprised stares aimed her way from all over the shrine, Rika doesn't say a word and simply stands up, saying "I'll... go clean the dishes now. Please excuse me."

Reimu stares concernedly at Rika for a moment, turns her attention to Ail, Budou, Sanae and Tenshi, then signals them to get closer and whispers something to them.

* * *

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Budou and Guzman were created by Willie G.R.

Ail's "Brightness, Overwhelming Heart" spell card was created by Willie G.R.

Rika Onkamikami was created by Snapshot2010

AUG 25 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**I'm feeling bad for letting lose such dangerous villain around Gensokyo. It wretched my stomach to write what he does to Reimu and Ail, same as with poor Shizuha, and there is still more to come. If I happen to stop posting for a while, be sure it's because I'm taking a break from this guy. I myself know of what's to happen with him, yet I wish I could just stop him already and end it... but that would make this a very short story, and not a very good one either. So, I'll hold my stomach, gulp down my heart, steel myself, and continue this story 'till the end. It'll be worth it.**

**Tainted souls can be brought back to the light, but only if they wish for it. Thank you for reading, please leave a comment/review, and see you next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

It's early morning at the Human Village, where all are blissfully unaware of the events occurring at the Youkai Forest, the Scarlet Devil Mansion, or the very own Hakurei Shrine.

Kyo, who wears a dark-blue buttoned shirt with a white muscle shirt underneath, a pair of long black pants, the black belt with the red amplifier on a redesigned silver oval buckle, which has a star design under the red stone, and now wearing a pair of brown army boots, sits on one of the desks inside Keine's school.

He smiles while looking around, then Keine, who sits on her own desk, asks "so, are you telling me, or not?"

Kyo chuckles and says "sitting here makes me feel nostalgic. After all, I did meet Ail at school."

Akyuu reveals herself from underneath the desk behind Kyo, holding a brush and ready to write, then excitedly says "yes, yes, just tell the story already!"

Kyo looks at Akyuu and asks "so... where do you want me to start? From where I met Ail, or perhaps...?"

Luna, who wears her dark blue dress, white tight shorts, black belt with her two gun blades, and her tengu slippers, along with Medicine, pop out from behind Keine's desk, surprising the teacher to a yelp, then Luna angrily says "just get on with it!"

Medicine shouts "just tell us about yourself already!"

Akyuu sighs while Keine smacks the two girls' head with a large book, then says "I'd like to know about you. You told me you were someone else before you met Ail. I am very interested in this other 'Kyo'."

Kyo sighs, looks out the window, then says "then I'll start at my childhood. Even then, I felt I didn't belong where I was. Don't get me wrong, I loved my family, my REAL family, and I still do, even if they do annoy me... but there was something wrong with me. I could see things nobody else could, and to them it seemed as though I was not normal."

To the left of Keine's desk, Luna and Medicine, both with a large bandage on top of a bump on their heads, eat pop-corn while looking intently at Kyo.

Keine stands next to them with an angry scowl and ominous smile, so Medicine stands up, smiles as she offers Keine some pop-corn, then asks "want some too?"

Keine grabs Medicine, gives her a powerful head-butt, and after placing her back on the floor in a daze, she goes for Luna and after head-butting her and leaving her swaying in a daze, she says "no eating in my CLASSROOM!"

Medicine, who now has a second bandaged bump on her forehead, summons Su-San and takes flight, then shouts "that's it! This means WAR~!"

Suddenly, the front of the classroom is a small battle zone with danmaku and poison clouds flying everywhere while the girls all scream.

Ignoring this, Kyo continues his story, while Akyuu gets closer to keep her attention on him.

Kyo sighs, then says "I can say it all started the day I met that hooded man..."

* * *

MANY YEARS AGO...

It's a calm morning in the large city streets of the world outside Gensokyo.

A small five year old boy walks by the streets surrounded by tall buildings, wearing blue shorts, a white shirt and brown shoes with white socks.

As he walks down the sidewalk, he kicks a can around, knocking it against the few other people in the area.

He ignores the people's angry glares and complaints, and simply continues to kick the can.

He suddenly stops, then stares to the sidewalk on the other side of the street, following something with his eyes.

Though for normal people there is nothing there, the small boy sees a red shapeless shadow that crawls all over the walls and goes through the people when crawling on the sidewalk.

The shadow stops, then takes the form of a human with demonic wings, stares at the boy, then turns back to a formless blob and speeds away.

The little boy quickly follows after it from the other side of the street, making sure he doesn't lose sight of it, and before he knows it, he's out in the city's outskirts, tired from all the running.

He reaches a small white bench next to a bus stop sign, jumps on it to wait for the next bus, then sighs and looks down to his feet while fiddling his thumbs together, saying to himself "Kyo, what the hell. Chasing shadows again? Maybe mom was right about me. Maybe I do need those stupid pills. Even if they do make me feel all sick and depressed."

From behind the bench, a young man's voice startles little Kyo, saying "I know just how you feel, kid."

Kyo jumps off the bench and turns around, raising his fists and looking all over while bravely saying "who's there? Show yourself!"

A man in a black cloak suddenly appears sitting on bench, right next to where Kyo was, and sounding a little more friendly, he says "relax kid. I'm on your side."

Kyo doesn't even look surprised, but keeps his guard up as he glares at the mysterious young man, then asks "the name's Kyo, not 'kid'. Who the hell are you? And what the hell do you know about me?"

The young man chuckles and says "hell... heh-heh. Forgive me, my name is *****, and I wish to help you."

Kyo narrows his left eye and raises his eyebrow, then asks "what was your name again?"

The young man chuckles and says "it's of no importance. Come, sit here with me."

Kyo stares suspiciously at the man, so he chuckles again and asks "you see the shadows, don't you? You also see the sparks of light, and you can even see ghosts and strange creatures... right?"

Kyo keeps staring at the young man with suspicion, who says "I can see them too, Kyo. Those 'pills' you were just talking about. They will take this wonderful ability away. Don't take those, I can help you. I can be... a good friend."

Kyo lowers his guard, but continues to stare suspiciously, then says "I highly doubt it. You don't seem too friendly to me, hiding under a cloak like that."

The young man chuckles again, then says "this? This is to conceal my presence. You see, like you, people reject me, and all because we are so special."

Kyo looks back with curiosity, then the young man, sounding a little more excited, says "yes Kyo. You ARE special. I know of a place where there are others, just like you and I. Come with me and I'll take you there! Come with me, and escape the cold judgmental eyes of those too blind to see the wondrous world in front of their faces."

Kyo closes his eyes in order to think a little longer, and when he opens them again, the cloaked man is standing right next to him, offering a very pale hand that comes from beneath the large black cloak.

The young man says "come with me... or... stay. Take your pills like a good little boy, and cut your potential in half. Become a blind lamb like the rest of them."

Kyo thinks about it a little longer, then glares at the hooded man and says "I can walk by myself! Now, where is this place?"

The young man chuckles and says "oh, my apologies. Please, come with me."

* * *

Young Kyo follows the hooded young man back to the city, each step they take seems to take them faster, to the point where other people can't seem to see them zip by, then they enter a dark alley, where the world seems to change entirely.

The walls are riddled with bright graffiti, some more obscene than others, the sun seems unable to reach this place, yet there is an eerie light illuminating it, and everywhere they look, there are shadows of all shapes and colors crawling everywhere.

At the end of the small alley there is a large open square surrounded by tall buildings, where many boys and girls of all ages seem to pass the time.

The older-looking ones play around with what seems like dice covered by a dark blob, and whenever someone gets a pair of ones, the others cheer, the opponent seems to get terrified, then a large shadow comes from the dice and places a thin and long hand on his or her face, then they would turn pale and fall semi-conscious on the ground.

Kyo thinks he can see some of the boys place their hands under the clothes of the unconscious girls before tossing them back to the other girls, same as with the girls with the unconscious boys.

The younger boys and girls look as though they play innocent children's games, though they all seem to cheat by summoning dark shadows or vines to make others fall or get stuck, but one thing that seems to be a pattern to all of this is that although some get angry, in the end, nobody seems to care at all.

Finally, young Kyo can see some children his own age, all standing under one of the baskets of a small basketball court.

The young hooded man roughly commands "you wait there with the others! Our leader will see you shortly!"

Kyo snarls and taps the man's leg hard to get his attention, then angrily says "you watch your tone with me! You're not my friend, nor are you one of my parents."

The hooded man aggressively grabs young Kyo by his shoulders, holding him tight, gets him closer to his hood, revealing a pair of glowing red eyes, then angrily says "you listen to me, you brat! I just saved you for making a terrible mistake!"

Kyo turns the tables, forcefully frees himself from the young man, grabs his shoulders, then looks back at his glowing red eyes under his hood and speaking through his teeth, he says "I came here one my OWN free will. You didn't save me from ANYTHING, you pathetic worm!"

As soon as Kyo releases the young man, he reveals a dark staff that emanates dark energy all around it from under his cloak, but there is a thunderous voice that startles all in the square, except Kyo, who looks toward a concentration of smoke, from where the voice comes from.

The voice says "well *****, it seems you brought us a real warrior! Good, good! We can use brave ones like him!"

From inside the smoke concentration, a tall man with a pair of large black horns on his head and large grey wings that match the color of his skin walks out and reveals himself to the others.

Though Kyo can see his rue form, the other children there can only see a tall man with long black hair, a matching well-kept thin beard, wearing a long black cloak.

Kyo stares bravely at this demon, who laughs as he looks back at the boy and says "I can see it in your eyes. You can... SEE me! Yet, you're not afraid?"

Kyo quickly replies "tch, like I care how you look. Just tell me what do you want already."

The demonic man smiles, then says "I just want to save you, Kyo!"

Kyo gasps with surprise for the first them, but before he asks, the demonic man says "yes, I know your name. I know ALL of your names. But that's not important. What's important is that from now on, you are part of this family... that is, if you are willing to accept us."

The hooded young man now stands where the older boys and girls are, and everyone there stare at the small children, waiting for their answers with anticipation.

Kyo is the first to smile and say "fine, I accept! This place looks like fun anyway!"

As soon as Kyo says that, the other children excitedly add their voices of acceptance, making the large demonic man smile and laugh, raising his hands to the sky.

* * *

For six years, young Kyo enjoyed the life with his new "family", from playing childish pranks, like shaving cats, knocking on doors and running away, or making crank calls, to committing crimes, like stealing food, toys and money from stores, bullying other people, breaking into houses, and vandalizing others property.

He watches as his friends slowly take the shape of small demons, and how their leader seemed to get younger, the more people join them.

Kyo himself has changed, from calm and kind, to aggressive and abusive... until one day, when he first saw young Ail, talking with some fairies under an ancient tree on the school grounds.

He watches as he peacefully enjoys his day, simply being and ignoring the comments and stares of others, and watches as a small group of larger kids come and kick dirt all over him.

He is amazed when he sees this boy simply resuming his life, completely ignoring the bullies.

Kyo thinks "what the hell? He's not fighting back? What's gives? Doesn't he have to guts to stand up for himself... or is it something else?"

For three more days Kyo watches Ail closely, wondering how can someone like him be living outside his group, and still be able to see what he sees, but more importantly, how is he able to live surrounded by others that shun him.

The longer he observed Ail, the more he longed to be like that lonely boy, though every time the bullies came to pick on him, Kyo would feel rage for the lonely boy, until one day, he couldn't take it anymore.

Kyo rushes to the bullies and knocks their leader away with one punch, scaring away the smaller lackeys.

Angry, their leader hurries back up and shouts "hey, what's your problem, buddy?"

Kyo glares at the bully and stands up straight, showing their difference in size, Kyo being bulkier and taller by a few centimeters, then says "my problem is your ugly face, and if you don't get the hell out of here, I'm going to rearrange it for you!"

Trembling, yet trying to keep his composure, the bully says "f-fine! L-let's get out of here! Besides, this kid's not worth it!"

As they leave, Kyo turns his neck around to look at Ail, then smiles and leaves.

Ail glares back at first, but calms down after a small spark lands on his shoulder.

For two more days, Kyo made sure to protect Ail from any more bullies, and on the evening of that second day, after scaring away five bullies he had to beat up, Kyo turns his neck, smiles, and says "you ok there, buddy? Remember, if you're in trouble, you call me. Oh, and happy thirteenth birthday."

Ail gasps when Kyo congratulates him on his birthday, then the same small spark lands on his shoulder.

Kyo can hear as she whispers "I told him about it", so he smiles, then walks away.

After that, Ail and Kyo become inseparable.

Wherever one is, the other is not far behind, except when Kyo has to visit his other friends at the alley.

It takes almost a year for Kyo to separate himself from that gang, but the longer he's with Ail, the more he realizes his mistakes, and he knows it's only a matter of time before something happens... and it does.

One day, while walking through the park, Kyo finds Ail surrounded by the ones he used to call family, all looking eager to draw blood from his friend, so before he knows what he's doing, he's already standing between Ail and the gang's leader.

The tall demons, which Ail and Kyo can see clearly as he really is, loudly laughs and says "well, will you look at that? It's Kyo! Come to join us again?"

Kyo bravely shouts back "shut up! All you really wanted was to form an army for yourself! I only followed you because I THOUGHT that was the right path! Tch! Was I ever wrong!"

The leader roars, then points at Kyo, saying "you were my special boy, Kyo! Don't do this to me!"

Kyo looks down, seemingly sad, then says "yeah, I guess you could say you were like a father to me..."

Ail feigns calmness, but his eyes tremble with terror, but he closes them and after quickly opening them again, there's resolve.

Kyo opens his own eyes to look back at the gang's leader with resolve in his own eyes, then says "please, back off. Leave us alone!"

The gang leader roars with fury again, opening his wings and pulling out a gun, then Ail loses his usual calmness and tackles Kyo with all his might, falling with him to the ground.

The gun is shot, and instead of the intended target, the bullet hits one of the other demonic thugs, killing him in an instant.

The leader roars and readies himself to shoot again, but Ail is all over him with a thick text book, hitting his hand hard and trying to take that gun away from his vile hands.

Meanwhile, Kyo stands up with a quick flip, knocking out one of the other demonic thugs with a kick, then punches another right between the eyes, then thrusts his elbow behind, knocking the air off the third thug.

The last two tremble after witnessing how Kyo takes out their friends in one hit, then bow to the ground, begging for mercy.

Kyo ignores them and rushes to help Ail, realizing there is another thug with a knife on his hand, ready to kill his friend.

Ail tosses the heavy textbook on to the leader's hand, knocking out the gun, then notices the thug is behind him, though it's too late, but to his luck, Kyo jumps from behind the guy and head-butts him hard, knocking him out.

Kyo shouts "RUN!", then he and Ail make a break for it, escaping the demonic gang.

* * *

During the course of two and a half months, Ail and Kyo find themselves keeping each other company wherever they go, always keeping their eyes open for any possible attacks, then one night, Kyo foolishly decides to take matters into his own hands.

The square that once seemed so lively to him now shows its true colors.

The buildings surrounding the large square are derelict and abandoned, the light is a mere illusion to hide the stagnant darkness, and everyone in there looks just like demons; not one has human shape anymore.

They all glare at Kyo, who glares back and shouts "you bastards are really annoying. Leave me and Ail alone, or I will have to beat you all straight back to hell!"

Kyo turns around in a bit of a surprise when a familiar voice says "I was hoping to be the one to kick your butt back in shape, Kyo. I'm going to enjoy this."

It's the very same hooded man that found him when he was a child, and for some inexplicable, and probably unnatural reason, he sounds the same as he did before.

Kyo raises his fists when he realizes the hooded man already holds his dark staff on hand, then says "I don't want to fight you, but if you insist..."

The hooded young man laughs, then says "oh, but I do... ever since you disrespected me that day... Now, FIGHT!"

The man rushes straight at Kyo with his weapon raised above his head, but Kyo simply stands in place, and as soon as the man is in reach, Kyo crouches and sweeps his foot, forcing the man to fall and roll forward to avoid damage, then both raise their defenses and rush at each other again.

The man tries the same attack, so Kyo raises his right hand to hold the weapon that is swung down on him, then locks his left hand against his opponent's.

Both grunt as they look at each other, though Kyo is not sure if he's really looking at the man's face, since it's so perfectly hidden under that dark cloak.

Kyo kicks the man's abdomen with his knees, and while he bends down and gasps for air, Kyo uses all his rage and gives him such and uppercut, he is sent flying three feet in the air before falling on his head.

Confident, Kyo looks around and shouts "who else wants some? I can do this all day if you want, but I'm not leaving until you SWEAR to leave Ail and me alone!"

Kyo can hear the leader laughing from behind as the familiar smoke forms up, yet he remains unaware that the hooded young man rises from behind him, moving like a winged snake, then strikes Kyo on the back of the head with his weapon.

Kyo wakes up tied to a metal pole that used to be the basket for the basketball court.

He doesn't know how long he's been out, but quickly realizes he's been beaten up, the aching pain all over his body acknowledging this.

When he wakes up, the gang's demonic leader holds his gun pointed at Kyo, then says "you should have stayed on our side. Now you must die. It's the rules, my child."

Kyo spits to the ground in front of the leader, then says "spare me the theatrics, you demon! Tell me something, though. Why do you want to kill Ail so badly? What did he do to you?"

The demon laughs heartily, and as he smiles at Kyo, he says "if he manages to grow up, his light will burn us all, and that is something we cannot allow... same as you. Shame, really. You were such a good acquisition. Good bye, Kyo."

Everyone gasps and the gang's leader seems frozen in place when there's a loud siren, and the loud voice of a man, saying "we have you surrounded! Come on out with your hands up!"

The lesser of the thugs immediately run away, shouting "it's the coppers! RUN~!"

All in the square, including their leader, forgets everything and rushes to run away through the hidden exits on the building walls or hidden ladders, and while they run, Ail rushes to Kyo and quickly unties him, saying "I got you! Come on, let's go!"

The second he finishes untying Kyo, they both hear bangs coming from their left.

The gang's leader realizes he's been tricked, and he roars with rage as he runs straight back to Kyo, madly shooting his gun.

* * *

Ail and Kyo find themselves trying to hide behind the pole, though it offer little protection, so Kyo signals Ail to run for it, but the moment Ail steps away, he falls to the ground with a bullet wound on the back of his head.

For Kyo, the world seems to slow down as he watches his friend fall to the ground with a blank and empty stare.

The moment Ail's head touches the ground and bounces twice, Kyo walks out of hiding and roars as he heads straight at the large demon, who laughs at Ail's death.

He's about to shoot again, but Kyo is already punching his abdomen and kicking the left side of his face, making him fall on the hard ground and forcing him to drop the gun after stomping hard on his hand and breaking a few fingers.

Kyo lifts him up, so the demon takes the chance to try and sucker-punch Kyo, but the boy is ready and ducks in time, punches the demon's abdomen, the right side of his face, grabs his horns, then forces his face to his knee, then knocks him back to the ground with an upward kick.

Kyo rushes over to finish off the monster with a hard stomp to the neck, but the demonic man turns around and blasts Kyo's eyes with a flash of light.

Moments later, Kyo finds himself lying on the ground next to the dead leader of the gang, though to him, he now looks like a large man with long black hair, tanned skin, and a goatee.

Kyo gasps and exclaims "whoa! Dead man!"

He looks around, noticing he's behind many abandoned buildings, desperately trying to get his bearings again, but that's when he notices Ail.

He tries to remember what happened, but all he can remember is that his friend is in danger because of him.

He notices the bullet wound on the back of Ail's head, so he ignores his own confusion and grabs his friend from the ground, then runs to a hospital.

Seven days later, while walking to the hospital to go and see his friend, Kyo thinks "why can't I remember? What was I doing there? Who was that man, and why did I just leave him? And what the hell happened to Ail?"

A white car drives close to Kyo, but it's not until after the person inside honks the horn and shouts "are you Kyo~?", that Kyo notices this.

The young looking woman inside, who wears a long blue plaid dress, has maroon eyes and short brown hair, looks at him with urgency, so Kyo replies "yes, I am. Who are you?"

The woman inside quickly replies "oh, thank goodness. I'm Ayalina, Ail's mother! Please, I need your help!"

Kyo finds himself inside the car with Ail's mother, who says "I need your help. Ail's bullet wound, i-it healed up perfectly in just five days, and now those scientists and religious loons want to use my baby for their own purposes! Please, you have to help me get him out of there!"

Kyo points at himself with his thumb and bravely says "you can count on me!"

* * *

At the hospital, Kyo wears a doctor's outfit, while Ayalina wears a pink nurse's outfits, though all the nurses there wear white, and every time someone asks, she just smiles says "never mix whites with colors, darling."

They find Ail inside a plain windowless room, hooked up to large machines that surround his bed, making him look like some kind of machine himself.

Ayalina and Kyo gasp at the sight, but they know they don't have much time, so the gently start removing the many cables, pads and needles stuck on his body.

They finally get him to a wheelchair and immediately make their way back outside, moving quickly and trying to look as casual as they can.

They reach the elevator just fine, but the second the elevator doors open on the ground floor, one of the doctor that's been treating Ail quickly spots his patient and shouts "hey! That's Ail! Where are you taking him?"

Ayalina yelps while Kyo grabs Ail and sets him on his right shoulder, then kicks the wheelchair forward to slow down the two nurses and the doctor going after them.

The people outside all run scared, thinking the is a robbery in progress, so Ayalina and Kyo take advantage of that and get lost with Ail between the panicking people.

To their luck, the three guards in the area are too distracted with the panicked people, and the armed guards are still making their rounds around the back, so they waste no time to get into the car and drive away, seemingly casual.

Laughing as Ayalina drives, Kyo asks "so what should we do now?"

Ayalina sighs and says "they were supposed to send him home two days ago, so I suppose it's bed-rest for him."

After a quick laugh, there is a small moment of silence, then Ayalina suddenly says "you know, Ail's been talking about you so much. He failed to mention how handsome you are, young man."

Kyo's cheeks turn red and his eyes hide under a dark shadow as he smiles sheepishly and says "er, thanks... And I don't think it would be healthy of Ail to be saying that."

Ayalina pinches Kyo's cheek while smiling mischievously and "now, now, don't be modest!"

* * *

BACK TO THE PRESENT

Akyuu has filled her scroll and looks quite content about it, Luna and Medicine hold on to Kyo's left and right arms, and Keine sits on her desk with a smile on her face.

Kyo sighs, then says "Ail woke up a week later after that, then we told him what happened at the hospital. We also told him how much money the religious groups and the scientists were willing to give us for him... and after that he started acting warmly towards, so I believe we did the right thing."

Medicine suddenly lifts her head and looks at Kyo with a pout and a scowl, then asks "wait a minute! You lied to us!"

Kyo looks surprised at Medicine, who continues "you said that flash made you forget, but how can you remember all that if you forgot?"

Luna lightly taps his right shoulder with the palm of her hand and asks "hey, were you making it all up?"

Kyo chuckles and calmly says "I didn't. You see, I did forget everything about that gang I joined, but the day Ail and I landed here, I started having these dreams, and every time they became more and more clear. Last time, the dream was way too clear, too real, so I went to the underground to see Satori a while ago and asked her to help me remember. It took some effort from her... and some acceptance from me, but we were able to recover everything."

He looks out the window and says "I'm not proud of what I did... After all, I did so many terrible things."

Luna embraces Kyo, placing his head on her chest, then gently combs his hair with her fingers while saying "hey, I was no saint either, but look at me now. Look at both of us. We changed, Kyo, and that's what's important."

Kyo enjoys himself while on Luna's embrace, his face turning red while he smiles, then he looks at Luna though the corner of his right eye, smiles more naturally, and placing a hand on her right cheek, he says "yeah. You're right."

Sounding a bit nervous, Keine chuckles and says "sorry to ruin your moment... but the children are here."

Kyo and Luna open their eyes wide and straighten up, blushing with embarrassment when they realize they are surrounded by many children, all straight with the outmost curiosity at them.

Medicine crosses her arms across her chest while Su-San sits on her shoulder, then says "heh, you perverts."

Both Kyo and Luna strike Medicine on the head, then Kyo grabs her off the floor, while Su-San flies after him, striking him constantly on the left shoulder with her tiny fists, clenching her tiny eyes.

Akyuu, Kyo and Luna make their way out, but before leaving, Kyo turns around and says "I'll be seeing you around."

Keine giggles, bows, then says "thank you for your time."

After they exit, Keine immediately calls for attention and begins her class.

Lurking around the school, the hooded man that attacked Cirno and Budou stares at Kyo with glowing red eyes, snickering as he says "so you remember, Kyo! Good, good, now I have another reason to kill you! Just you wait... Kaizo Yumeda."

A golden washtub falls from the roof and knocks the man on the head, making him groan in pain as he falls to the ground.

From the roof, Maribel, who bares her cat ears, looks down and says "whoops. Need to be more careful."

* * *

It's late noon, and at the Hakurei Shrine, and Kyo, Luna and Medicine quickly fly up the stairs.

Once on front of the gate, Kyo angrily shouts "Ail, Reimu, what the HELL is the meaning of this!"

Medicine exclaims "jeez, calm down you big ape!"

Kyo replies "not now Medi!"

Remilia rushes out to greet the noisy guests and angrily says "ah, the lummox! Keep it down! Reimu is trying to rest!"

Kyo is about to shout back, but he notices the seriousness in Remilia's eyes, so he calms down and asks "so those tengu weren't lying?"

Remilia nods, then Luna asks "what about Sakuya?"

A brief moment of sadness courses through Remilia's eyes as she looks at Luna, then says "yes. She's recovering, but being a human, her recovery won't be as fast as I'd wish."

She stares at the three visitors, then signals them to follow her with her hand and says "come, I believe you'll want to see for yourselves."

After following Remilia and entering the shrine, they find Ail waking up and sitting on a futon next to Budou's and Sanae's, though Sanae already sits beside him and offers support.

Mima and Suika sit on a corner, taking quick sips of sake from their cups while lost in thought.

Kyo looks around as though in shock, then softly asks "one human did all of this?"

Luna whispers "you're human too, and you beat miss Suika once."

Kyo whispers back "yeah, but that was a friendly competition! This is..."

When Remilia opens the door to Reimu's room, Kyo watches as Reimu whimpers while she tries to sit up, and Rika helps her mistress, though stares with anger all the time.

To their left, Minoriko places a moist towel on Shizuha's head, and Kyo, Luna and Medicine turn pale when they see how pale Shizuha's skin looks.

Luna asks "h-has there been others?"

Reimu winces as she gets up as the pain from that kick on her lower back throbs with force, and says "to our knowledge... no."

Ail immediately says "he has a disgusting gun with him, and worse, the gun is imbued with dark magic."

Kyo looks all around, trying to find words to say, and all he can ask in the end is "bu... why didn't anyone tell me?"

Ail sighs and says "it happened all too fast... and all in two nights."

Sanae adds "he's a coward and a pig. He tried to have his way with Reimu and Sakuya."

Ail immediately says "it's his nature. It's what he lives for."

There's a loud crash out in front of the shrine, then Tenshi scream "no~! You can't!"

All in the room, except for Kyo, Medicine, Luna and Remilia, seems to get very nervous, so before anything happens, the four that are more relaxed quickly exit the shrine, but even more quickly relax and face palm, almost at the same time.

In front of the shrine, Marisa and Tenshi push against each other, arguing over being quiet, or being loud.

Marisa also holds a roll of newspaper on her left hand, so Kyo pulls his out of his pocket and loudly says "Marisa, calm down!"

Marisa suddenly turns her attention to Kyo and walks to him, raising her newspaper above her head and angrily saying "shut up, you, or I'll smack you!"

Luna grabs Kyo's paper, rolls it up, and in an instant, she strikes Marisa so hard, she flattens her hat and knocks her face-first to the ground.

Afterwards, she grabs Marisa and twists her arm behind her back, then excitedly whispers "look inside and tell me what you see!"

Marisa looks inside and notices the dark ambient inside the shrine, then looks at Reimu, who is finally on her feet, though looking a bit tired as she says "phew, it's only Marisa."

Luna angrily whispers "now calm down, or you're going to give them all a fit!"

Marisa winces in pain and clenches her teeth while Luna starts twisting her arm upward, then manages to nod rapidly.

Luna lets her go and says "there, was that so hard? Now... Kyo, Medi..."

Kyo, Medicine and Tenshi all place their full attention on Luna, who continues "we will stay here and guard them while they recover... that is, if it's alright by Reimu?"

Reimu quickly nods from inside, then Rika suddenly stands up, looking a bit serious as she says "I'll get more futons."

Kyo immediately says "not for me... I don't think I'll be able to sleep."

Medicine adds "you'd have to burn mine away after I'm done with it."

Luna giggles and says "I'll take one, if it's not too much trouble."

Remilia suddenly flaps her wings with all her might and says "I need to check on Sakuya and Flan. Reimu, I'll be back soon", then quickly flies away.

Tenshi gets closer to Medicine, then says "you and I will take the first watch", then grabs the youkai doll.

Su-San flutters above Tenshi, while she drags Medicine with her, who asks "wait, why do I get to pair up with you?"

Ail stands next to Kyo, holding on to the sleeping bat youkai, Budou, with his left hand, then places his right hand on Kyo's left shoulder and says "I can't stay here, buddy. I need to make sure Sanae gets home safely."

Before Kyo replies, Budou moans and whispers "I have to... care for... papa~."

Kyo smiles and says "well, you take care my friend. But you have two lovely bodyguards with you, so you should be just fine."

Sanae stands to Ail's left and giggles after Kyo's comment, then says "we'll take good care of him."

Reimu smiles as she looks outside, then says "remember, take your time to fully recover, then come back here. Do not confront him. Hopefully, when you return, Aya and Hatate might have found out something."

Ail nods and replies "sure thing Reimu", while from inside, Rika looks a bit angry while staring at Reimu, worrying Mima and Suika, who try their best to keep their worried faces away from her.

* * *

At the Youkai Forest, Nitori is taking a relaxing walk, taking her mind away from things that seem to be haunting her in the resort.

Somehow, her walk isn't so relaxing, as each and every step seems to pain her heart while thinking about something that happened just an hour before.

She looks up at the sky and says "boy, Julia was right. They really are angry. Ah, but I can't just tell him 'hey, now that you're all better, get out'. No, I can't do that to him..."

Without realizing it, She's now standing on the river's edge and looking at the coursing water.

From her left, Hina says "oh dear, so much misfortune!"

Nitori gasps and is about to run away on instinct, but relaxes when she sees its Hina and says "Hina, you almost gave me a heart attack!"

Hina quickly starts spinning clockwise while saying "you seem to be so pained. Let me take those misfortunes away while you talk to me."

Nitori smiles lightly as she looks at Hina from under the brim of her hat, then says "I don't know if I've made the right choices. I mean, kappa and humans are supposed to be friend, and yet... for Guzman, even Julia is against him!"

Hina continues to spin as she absorbs a light violet cloud from Nitori and says "ah, that man you saved. What if I told you that all that has happened so far is something that was meant to happen?"

Nitori starts feeling a little lighter and manages to lift her head, then asks "you mean, I really am doing the right thing?"

While still spinning, Hina replies uh-huh. Trust me, my little friend. I'm a god. I know about these things. Now comes the time where you must make a choice, but know whatever choice you make, you will have to let go of something in the end, for there can't be no new without ridding of the old."

Nitori rubs her chin while pondering on what Hina is telling her, then smiles, snaps her fingers, then excitedly says "I understand now! Yes, it makes sense! I-I should remodel the resort and make it even better! With new things and new rooms and...! Oh, I better get started!"

Hina stops spinning, and immediately after, Nitori grabs her hand and shakes it in thanks, smiling and saying "thank you, thank you Hina! I better get going!"

As she speeds away back home, she shouts again "thank you~!"

Hina looks toward Nitori with a pained and tender smile, then says "if it only were that simple. Oh, what a terrible fortune. I hope she can survive it. After all, it's either her species, or her life."

* * *

That night, Sanae walks away from the tengu's mountain with a smile on her face, slowly making her way back home.

Her smile quickly vanishes after some leaves rustle to her left.

She looks around with a serious face and asks "miss Momiji, is that you?"

There is no answer, unsettling Sanae even more, so she decides to fly back home instead.

The second her feet leave the ground, Guzman jumps straight at her from one of the trees to the right, aiming to grab her face, but Sanae manages to push herself with some wind gusts and escapes his grip, but Guzman still manages to grab her left leg and pulls her down.

He tries to slam her against the ground, but she manages to summon a gust wind to soften her fall, and thanks to a miracle, the wind bounces her away from Guzman and back on her feet.

Sanae now holds her gohei on her right hand and stands defensively while glaring at Guzman, who smiles and whispers "sorry, but I can't seem to wait to make you all mine, miss."

Sanae clenches her teeth, feeling disgusted, then summons a large red star in front of herself, then sends it straight at Guzman.

He smiles, then flaps open his cloak, bouncing the red star back to Sanae, who jumps out of the way just in time.

Sanae feels her hands and feet getting cold, her heart racing inside her chest, terror slowly making its way up to her head as she thinks of running away while she can, but the thought of that man in front of her hurting Ail, Budou, or either of the goddesses prevents her from just running away.

Guzman smirks, then shouts "time to claim my prize!", then rushes after her.

Sanae instinctively pulls out a spell card from under her sleeve and shouts "Sea Opening, Moses' Miracle!"

A giant waves threatens to engulf Sanae, but it splits apart when it gets close to her, then heads straight at Guzman.

The confident man smiles, then pulls out Nitori's instant dryer from his pocket and pulls the trigger, immediately drying up the waves that threatened him, then aims it at Sanae, making her scream the moment she feels the hot dry air smack he right on the face.

She now lies on her side the ground, gasping as desperate thirst haunts her.

Guzman smiles triumphantly and immediately jumps on her, turns her around, ignoring her coughs and pleas for water, then rips open her vest.

He's about to pull the vest and take it off the maiden, but all he sees when he tugs the vest are stars that accompany the feeling of having his face crushed by a brick.

Guzman bounces on the ground on his back and skids to a halt almost seven feet away from Sanae, but quickly gets up and rearranges his nose, making a disturbing cracking sound while doing so, yet not even flinching from the pain.

His angry stare suddenly changes to a wide smile when he realizes Ail stands right between him and Sanae, holding a red energy sword the seems to emanate from his bracelet and looking furious.

Guzman chuckles, then says "you have good tastes, you know. Still, you have plenty of women, so why don't you share already."

Ail points the red sword at Guzman and says "I am going to kill you!"

Guzman's smiles turns to a mad and vicious stare as he laughs and shouts "GREAT! Come then, TAKE MY LIFE!"

Ail smiles and immediately rushes forward, extending his sword while thinking only about opening a giant hole on Guzman's abdomen.

The moment the tip of his sword is an inch away from Guzman, Ail screams and falls to the ground, cancelling the magical sword in that instant.

Guzman smiles as he slowly takes his gun out of his pocket, then kneels closer to Ail, and whispers "last time you didn't let me tell you about this wonderful gun of mine. You see Ail, you are experiencing the bullet wounds all over again because..."

Guzman gets the gun a little closer to Ail's face so he can see how the dark energy emanates from its hilt.

Ail suddenly starts screaming loud, then Guzman springs up on his feet with a victorious smile and shouts "BECAUSE YOU ARE GETTING SHOT OVER AND OVER AGAIN~ A-HA-HA-HA~"

Blood starts coming out of Ail's right shoulder and from under his shirt down on his abdomen, and on his left calf, the bullet wound starts opening up again and blood starts rushing right out of it, just as if a real bullet was in there.

Ail can't scream anymore as the pain seems to lock his lungs shut, and while he looks up at Guzman in despair, Guzman says "you have been cursed Ail, and as long as I have this, I have YOU in the palm of my hands! You and EVERYONE I've ever shot becomes my toy. I enjoy that face of despair so much! MORE! I want to see it more!"

Out of nowhere, clouds cover the night sky and immediately, rain starts pouring down on the mountain without pause.

Guzman cackles manically and shouts "MORE~! Even the heavens want you to suffer more~!"

A bolt of lightning strikes right next to Guzman, sending him flying away from Ail with great force and making him crash against a tree, just as he activates the cloaks defenses, saving himself from a broken back.

When he gets back up, he watches as Sanae grabs Ail and flies away with him.

He thinks of chasing after them, but when he looks behind he can see Momiji and three other tengu running straight at him.

He growls inward and hides behind the tree, then disappears from sight.

Momiji and the other three wolf tengu that accompany here start sniffing around, then one of them says "he can't be far! Search that side!"

Momiji shouts "it's no use! With this much rain we won't be able to sniff him out!"

The brown-haired male asks "then what should we do?"

Momiji feels as though a hand frisks her back-side and tail, then she gasps and instinctively slaps the male wolf tengu that stands behind her, and with a red face, she shouts "you pervert! I'm reporting this misbehavior!"

Nervous and confused while rubbing his cheek, the male says "bu-bu-but I didn't do anything!"

At the mountain, Guzman reveals himself as he makes the dangerous climb back down, making sure to grip each right tightly, so as not to slip because of the rainwater, then thinks "mmm, that wolf girl's nice... and that maiden girl's miracles are going to be a pain, but at least she's not that WITCH! Ugh, calm down Guzman, chances are you'll never see that demon woman ever again."

He stops his decent for a moment and smiles, then says to himself "yeah... let's make that happen. Let's hunt her down so I can kill her, then I won't have to see her ever again! HAH~! That devil in angel's wings will die, and I'll be free again!"

* * *

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Kyo, Budou, Luna and Guzman were created by Willie G.R.

Rika Onkamikami was created by Snapshot2010

The hooded young man was created by Hydroviper

AUG 28 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Surprised? Yup, I was planning for Kyo's back story on this Sukima, though I wasn't planning on writing it so soon. Ah well, I do hope you liked it. I liked writing it, and it helped me relax a little and rest from Guzman, if only for a bit. Oh that's right, please remember that this is the story from Kyo's point of view, so some tings might seem a bit off from Ail's side of the story in Paradise Sukima.  
**

**Ah, that washtub felt so darn good! Honestly, I was missing them so much! Ah well, this Sukima won't have many of them (to some reader's delight), but they will be here. And trust me, next thing I'll write will have MANY of them! There's a reason I'm writing something so dark, but I still believe laughter and light is much more important! **

**Now, that villain... my goodness, what was I thinking? So many dangerous toys, and that gun of his! I hope you understand now, that dark spell is not all that, yet it is. A dark curse that can recreate a bullet wound... jeez, and it gets worse... Well... it is always darkest just before dawn, I say again... Thank you for reading, review if you'd like (I'd appreciate it a LOT) and see you next chapter.**


	5. Chapter 5

It's early morning at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and out on the garden right before the gate, Meiling stands in front of Sakuya with her arms crossed, looking tall and mighty.

Sakuya looks a little shaken and humbled in front of the towering gate guard, waiting for Meiling's first instructions.

Both wear light clothes, a lose white shirt and tight black shorts, though Meiling also wears a pair of green wristbands, and Sakuya a blue headband.

Meiling stares sternly at Sakuya and in a demanding tone of voice, she says "alright, today we continue our training from where we left off yesterday! Are you ready?"

Sakuya's arms and legs ache, her joints scream out their discomfort to her, and sounding both annoyed and exhausted, Sakuya replies "can't we take it easier today?"

Meiling angrily stomps on the ground and loudly says "see? That's the kind of attitude that got you to where you stand! I'm sorry, miss Sakuya-san, but we are going all out today as well! I promise, when we are done, you'll be pushing me with one hand while serving the mistress' tea with the other!"

Sakuya groans, letting her arms hang in the air while she slumps in front of Meiling.

The gate guard gets furious and shouts at the top of her lungs "we start with twenty laps around the garden! With me now! GO!"

Sakuya can only groan and moan as she runs behind Meiling, whose spirit seems to be burning bright, even so early in the morning.

Forty minutes later, Meiling stops, looking as fresh as when she started her run, while Sakuya's face is red, she's breathing heavily, holding herself up by placing her hands on her knees for support, panting as she says "please... ju... just a minute."

Meiling sighs, then looks at Sakuya with a surprised face, then says "wow, when it comes to fitness you really lose, don't you miss Sakuya?"

The chief maid wants nothing more than to shower Meiling with knives, but she's so tired, all the can think of is dropping to the ground for a nap.

There is a sudden crash coming from inside the mansion on the second floor, and Sakuya instinctively runs inside.

Meiling grabs Sakuya by her waist and pulls her back, saying "whoa there, miss Sakuya-san. You are NOT going back inside until AFTER training!"

A glint escapes Sakuya's right eye, and with a smile on her face she says "well, I'm sorry Meiling, but I really must take a look inside, so if you'll... Huh? Hey, where's my-?"

Meiling holds Sakuya's hand watch with her free right hand and swings it across Sakuya's face, asking "looking for this?"

With a confident and somewhat annoyed look on her face, she continues "well, I am under the orders of lady Remilia to make sure you train hard and NOT cheat your way out of it this time! So while we train, I'll be keeping this with me."

Meiling rapidly places the hand watch on her right pocket and releases Sakuya.

The chief maid looks sad and disappointed to the ground, whining as she says "aww, this is the worse!"

Meiling sighs, sounding a bit out of patience, then says "look, think of it this way. If that man ever comes back, you'll be able to use him like a ball and make him scream like a little girl without exerting much effort."

Something about those words seem to light a fire in Sakuya's soul, and without realizing it, she finds herself standing up straight and looking more lively.

Meiling smiles and asks "so, are you ready now, miss Sakuya-san?"

Sakuya nods and smile, then Meiling smiles back and says "good!"

There is another crash inside the mansion, this time followed by breaking glass.

Again, Sakuya instinctively tries to run back inside, forcing Meiling to grab her again and shout "oh no, miss Sakuya, you're staying HERE!"

Inside the mansion, Remilia peeks out the window and giggles, then pokes a blue flower vase on her left until it falls and crashes, then looks back outside, watching as Sakuya tries to break free from Meiling, and giggles again.

To her right is Flandre, who smiles and says "ooh, ooh, let's do this!"

Flandre open her right hand and points her palm at one of the columns of the arc on the corridor, and just as she clenches it into a fist, Remilia runs to her, shouting "Flan, WAIT!"

There is a loud explosion, and the sound of a wall collapsing, then both Meiling and Sakuya freeze in place, looking up as smoke rises from one of the windows that bursts open just then.

Sakuya's and Meiling's faces turn blue, then Sakuya says "er... on with the training then."

Meiling nods, then says "yeah... on with the training."

* * *

Meanwhile, Rika helps Reimu fly above the Youkai Forest, scowling while looking forward, keeping quiet all the way.

Reimu is tired of Rika's attitude, yet feels she has herself to blame for this, so she asks "why won't you talk to me?"

Rika's expression changes completely, as though she was lost in her own thoughts, and with her usual smile, she looks at Reimu and asks "what is it, my lady?"

Reimu knows this is just an act, so she gets a little angry, then says "don't play dumb with me, Rika. I know you are angry at me, but that man is just too dangerous! Look at what he did to Ail and Sanae; to me!"

Reimu immediately presents Rika with The Wolf's View Report newspaper with the picture of a shirtless Sanae holding on to a half dead and bleeding Ail while being carried away by Suwako and Kanako.

Rika sighs and says "my lady, that man is destroying this world, and I'm the only one that might have a chance against him now! Why can't you understand that?"

From Rika's left, Tenshi says "I already offered to protect her, and I'm a celestial."

Rika nods toward Tenshi and says "see?"

Reimu sighs and says "Tenshi, remember what I said?"

Tenshi quickly replies "I know Rika seems a little unlike her, but I think we're doing the wrong thing by keeping her out of it."

Before Rika can ask, from Reimu's Right, Marisa says "come on Reimu, don't keep this hidden from her. It's not fair, ze."

Reimu sighs in anger and defeat, making herself and Rika drop a little before regaining their balance, then says "alright. Rika, I heard what happened. Suika and Mima saw the way you acted when you fought him. Rika, I am not saying it's wrong to get angry, but you lost control of yourself."

Rika blushes and looks away, again dropping a little along with Reimu, and after recovering, she says "I-I'm sorry my lady. It's just... he was going to defile you! I couldn't let that happen!"

Reimu sighs and says "he's too dangerous Rika, and if you fight him without keeping control, you're going to end up being killed."

Tenshi smiles, then says "Reimu, you worry too much! Rika can handle it, I am sure!"

Rika immediately adds "my lady, please. That man and that gun of his are destroying this paradise! Pease, give me the chance!"

They finally reach their destination, and right after landing on the Moriya Shrine's front yard, right in front of the shrine's entrance, Reimu groans, then says "Tenshi, you make sure to help Rika as best you can, but don't go farther than what you can!"

Rika gasps while smiling widely, then Reimu turns her attention to her and says "please, don't lose yourself to him. The moment that happens is the moment he wins."

Rika's smile disappears as she stares at Reimu straight to her face, then nods.

From inside, Suwako calls "well, I was wondering when you would get here. Welcome."

Rika smiles brightly back at Suwako and says "good morning! We came as soon as we read the news!"

Budou reveals herself from behind Suwako with puffy red eyes, her cheeks full of tears and after sniffling and whipping her eyes with her long brown sleeves, she says "please *hic* come quick. Papa is really hurt!"

* * *

At the large clearing on the road between the Misty Lake and the Human Village, Guzman brazenly sits on a rock on plain view, lost in thought about something.

While he places his elbow on his knee and rests his head on the back of his fingers, he mumbles "she's a demon... do-gooder... Might as well."

From the farthest bushes behind him, Kogasa and Nue snicker as they plot a scare to the human before them.

After snickering some more, Nue whispers "ok, ok, shh. Get going, and remember, it's 'I'll chop it to bits', got it?"

Kogasa smiles and nods, then whispers "I got it. He's going to cry all the way back home after this!"

Nue snickers some more, imagining their plan at work, then lightly pushes Kogasa, whispering "go, go."

Kogasa tip-toes with a smile on her face all the way toward Guzman, unaware of the danger she's getting herself into, and when she's just inches away from him, she positions herself behind is back, raises her parasol and her hand, while smiling ominously with a malicious scowl.

The moment her shadow touches the top of Guzman's head, he throws his arm at the youkai, grabs her by the neck, grips her so tight his fingers sink into her skin, and using all his might, she bashes the left side of her head against the rock he's sitting on, dropping her unconscious body to the ground, her empty eyes slowly closing up on their own.

After witnessing this, Nue springs on to her feet and angrily shouts "HEY~! You hairless gorilla, what the HELL is your problem? Kogasa! Kogasa, are you alright?"

To Guzman, Nue's voice sounds like the roar of a large wild beast, and when he turns around, he sees a woman with little, but long orange hair that reaches just below her shoulders, wearing a light blue shirt with a long white skirt, smiling motherly at him.

Panic fills his face when he sees this, so he springs on to his feet, almost trembling as he does, and with his trembling hand, he reaches into his right pocket and pulls out his purple sunglasses.

After looking at the woman again, he calms down, takes a sigh of relief, then says "that was close. Still, this one's a threat!"

Through his glasses, the illusion of the motherly woman disappears, and Nue's true form comes into view, and although she moves her lips, all he can hear are roars and wails, and as if suddenly remembering, he says "the nue... of course."

He can suddenly hear her as she inspects Kogasa's body and angrily saying "you should be ashamed of yourself! She wasn't going to eat you! She was just playing a prank! Now you're gonna have to pay!"

Nue doesn't realize the man stands right beside her, placing a hand on his cowboy hat, smiling wickedly.

When Nue realizes he's this close, she looks with surprise and asks "wait, you can hear me?"

Immediately, Guzman presses a button on the left side of the hat's brim, sending a powerful sound wave and making Nue scream at the top of her lungs while holding her ears.

She manages to roll away from him before he can stomp her, then shouts "Hijiri! Help me Hijiri!"

Guzman's eyes expand and a wide and ominous smile fills his face, then says "Hijiri. Byakuren Hijiri. So she's around here? PERFECT!"

Nue looks terrified, as if realizing she's just made a mistake, but when she tries to get back up, she finds that she's so dizzy, any attempts to move ends up with her falling to back to the ground.

She gasps with horror as Guzman grabs her and lifts her above his head, and all she can do to defend herself is involuntarily flail her limbs.

Guzman smiles and says "for a youkai, you have surprisingly soft skin, but I guess it's Byakuren's skin I'm after, so goodbye!"

In an instant, Guzman grips her tight and uses every ounce of his strength to throw her downward, and a horrible crack echoes all over the open field.

As Guzman straightens up, Nue falls limp from his knee and rolls away until she crashes against a small stone.

Guzman chuckles as he takes off his sunglasses, then says "huh, I forgot to ask her where's Byakuren. Oh well, I'll find her."

* * *

At the Moriya Shrine, Ail sits on the shrine's porch, smiling while Budou forces him to eat mashed grapes, one of her favorite dishes.

His left calf is wrapped in bloody bandages, and under his shirt, his right shoulder and torso are also wrapped and treated by Rika and Sanae.

Inside, Kanako concernedly offers a glass of water to Sanae, saying "come on, drink up."

Sanae smiles after declining, then says "I'm serious lady Yasaka, I am fine now!"

Marisa stands next to Reimu, who sits on the other side of the porch, then smiles and says "we are all fast healers after all!"

Reimu looks up at Marisa and says "that may be, but..."

Suwako pops from under the ground right in front of the porch, between Ail and Reimu, then says "it's the spirit that needs recovering now."

Ail swallows his food as he nods, then says "he's destroying both our bodies and spirits with every attack. I thought so many things back there-"

Sanae interrupts Ail and says "the point is... we all need to be at our best, but more importantly... Ail!"

Everybody looks at Ail now, including Rika and Tenshi, who were admiring the flowers around the courtyard, and when Ail himself tries to turn around to look at Sanae, he groans in pain and ends up dizzying himself.

Sanae rushes over to him and places a very gentle hand on his right shoulder, while Budou concernedly grabs his left arm, then sternly and concernedly, Sanae says "Ail, I want you to stay away from that man!"

Ail immediately looks into Sanae's eyes, ready to argue with her, but the concern in her runs too deep for him to ignore, so he keeps quiet.

Rika approaches them, and with a serious face, she says "she's right, Ail. With that curse, he could use you against us, or worse, he could kill you."

Budou shrieks and shouts "no~! You stay away from that man!"

Sanae continues "Listen to us for once..."

To all their surprise, Ail is smiling as he nods, and when he is sure everyone is paying attention, he says "as much as I'd like to help... to get that monster out of here, I understand I am, in no way, being helpful to you this way."

Rika can see how disappointment fills his eyes, so she bends down to look into his eyes, then says "I'll get rid of that gun! After it's gone, you can come and finish him off."

Reimu, Ail and even the goddesses look at Rika with curious eyes, then she says "I hate those guns... almost as much as mister Ail... or perhaps maybe even more. I studied them and I know how to dismantle them with ease. If I can get my hands on that gun, I can turn it to pieces and find out where that curse is coming from. After that, I'm turning all those pieces into shreds with my sword."

Rika's family sword roars, getting Rika's, Reimu's and Ail's attention as the crystals glows blue five times, then Ail says "looks like he wants to do the same."

Rika smiles and says "miss Sanae, even though I managed to heal him, it's not perfect, so make sure to treat those wounds occasionally."

Sanae nods, while Budou jumps on Rika and gives her a tight hug, saying "thank for curing papa, miss Rika!"

Kanako smiles tenderly at Rika from inside, while Suwako stares at her with a childish smile and pats her back.

Their attention suddenly turns toward the Human Village, and from the distance, they all see how many small birds and fairies seem to fly away from one specific spot, and somehow, they all know it's Guzman.

Rika quickly looks to Reimu, who nods and says "please, remember what we talked about. Tenshi, for once, show me you're more than just a nuisance for me."

Tenshi smiles sheepishly with narrow eyes, then says "gee, if it weren't for Rika, I'd completely ignore you. But seeing it's her, you can count on me!"

As Rika and Tenshi take flight, Marisa helps Reimu on to her broom, then says "you lovebirds take care."

Reimu quickly adds "if you need me, I'll be at the Scarlet Mansion... There's something I need to ask Remilia."

Ail and Sanae nod at the same time, then Reimu and Marisa take flight.

After they leave, Kanako looks toward a strange scarlet cloud that seems to fly just above the mountain, then says "ah, she helped out Sanae a lot last night."

Suwako hides her face under her hat's brim as she says "it's a warning."

Ail, Budou and Sanae look at the scarlet cloud, and watch as it starts to slowly spread, then Budou says "we need to get you all better, papa. Even if you can't fight him, you can still help."

* * *

Moments later, Byakuren steps out of the grounds of the Myouren Temple, looking at her surrounding with a concerned and cautious face, thinking "I thought I heard Nue a while ago, but..."

She continues to walk farther down the road, following the way to the Misty Lake, then stops.

She looks around with a serious face and pulls a spell card from her left pocket, raising her guard.

She turns around to look behind her, back to the temple, and after taking two steps backwards she turns around again, then gasps and yelps.

Placing her spell card on her rapidly beating chest, she takes a few breaths and says "oh my, I'm so sorry. You scared me for a moment."

Guzman stands in the middle of the road, quietly staring at Byakuren with his lustful eyes.

Byakuren peeks behind the man, and with an embarrassed smile, she asks "I'm sorry, but could you tell me if you have seen a small girl with an eggplant colored parasol? She's with someone else, but I don't think you were able to see that one."

Immediately after she finishes her sentence, Guzman smiles and says "Byakuren Hijiri. Those pictures do you no justice. You are much more beautiful in person."

Byakuren's cheeks turn pink as she places her hands on them, and feeling a bit embarrassed, she says "oh my, th-thank you."

Guzman skillfully presses the button on the ring on his left hand with by clenching his fist, and before Byakuren realizes it, Guzman gets close to her, and a loud thud echoes all over, causing some fairies and birds to fly away.

Guzman sinks a powerful punch into Byakuren's abdomen, putting effort into pushing it upward and under her ribs, forcing her to spit at the same time he forces the air right out of her entire body.

Guzman smiles and whispers "I'm a little frustrated, so I'll just take you and relieve all my stress."

After he backs away, Byakuren slowly drops on her knees and looks around as though calling for help, then her eyes empty out and she falls on her left side to the ground.

She coughs out more spit, yet is unable to breathe in, and slowly, her consciousness starts fading, even though she fights it.

She helplessly watches as Guzman turns her over and starts ripping her clothes off right by the center, revealing her abdomen, and the large red bruise left by his vicious attack.

He slowly passes his hand by the bruise and says "well, that's going to leave a mark. No problem, I still like you. Now, I finally get to-"

Guzman finds himself being pushed by a large thick pink hand, though his barrier is active, keeping him safe from harm.

After being slammed against a tree, a girl calls "HIJIRI! She's over here!"

Guzman gets up on his feet with a hate-filled frown, and watches as Ichirin, Unzan, Minamitsu and Nazrin make their way straight to him.

Nazrin and Unzan take the lead and stand as defenses in front of Byakuren, while Ichirin and Minamitsu inspect Byakuren's body.

They despair when they see Byakuren closing her empty eyes with a smile on her face, and Minamitsu shouts "no, Hijiri! Wake up!"

Ichirin growls after seeing her clothe torn open, and the bruise on Byakuren's abdomen, then shouts "I don't care about the rules! Unzan, show him NO MERCY! AAH~!"

Before Unzan is able to make his move, the sound wave from Guzman's hat reaches the girls and knocks them to the ground, all screaming in agony as their brains feel as though are being scrambled with a rusty fork.

Guzman smiles widely as he says "will you look at that! Lifting the brim is like raising the volume!"

Unzan clenches his teeth readying a powerful fist for Guzman's face to save his friends, but Guzman smiles and says "since that didn't work for you... how about a space scrambler!"

From his back pocket, Guzman pulls out a rusty metal ring with what look like copper patches, then throws it to the ground.

He smiles as the ring immediately sends a powerful wave that turns Unzan's fist into a mere puff, then quickly makes its way over to the nyudo, who can't escape in time before dissipating.

Guzman laughs heartily, picks up his ring, and shouts "is this the best they got to offer?"

Standing behind him with a twisted and enraged face, surrounded by five fairies while gripping her lance tight, Shou angrily shouts "Light Sign, Demon Purification~!"

A small crystal pagoda floats right next to Shou's head, scaring away the fairies, then thick yellow beams fly from the crystal pagoda and straight to Guzman, who turns around and lifts his mirror cloak and reflects the beams back at Shou, though instead of burning her, the beams seem to calm her down.

With a calm, stern face, Shou says "this is meant for demons like you. You're gonna have to try something else if you want to take me down."

Guzman frowns, shrugs, then pulls out his gun and quickly shoots Shou's left shoulder, cancelling her spell and making her scream in agonizing pain as she falls on her knees on the ground along with the crystal pagoda, and letting go of her spear.

Guzman casually gets closer to her, and as he does, he says "I was hoping to save these three shots for that demon with angel wings... but I guess two will have to do."

Shou whimpers as she tries to back away, holding on to her bleeding shoulder, and when Guzman is close enough, she tries to kick him, but he activates the gun's curse, making her cry out in pain, smiles, then says "not really my style, but I can use barbaric weapons once in a while."

He bends down, picks up Shou's spear, looks at the sharp head on its tip, then turns it around and thrusts it through the left side of Shou's abdomen, making sure the weapon goes all the way through to her back, and right out of her body.

He smiles as he leaves Shou, coughing out blood while kneeling on the ground, with her own lance going through her body, then quietly makes his way back to Byakuren, but when he looks ahead, he frowns and fear seems to take over him.

Tenshi and Rika stand right behind the fallen girls, and after pointing her sword at him, Rika says "you will pay for your sins!"

* * *

Frozen by fear, Guzman can hear those children laughing and that woman's motherly call once again.

Rika wastes no time an flies straight at him, pointing her sword at his face, ignoring Tenshi's desperate warning.

The celestial groans as she unsheathes her own sword and thinks "geez, she's already out of it", then summons pointy a keystone she sends flying faster than Rika, though lower so as not to harm her friend.

Guzman watches with horror as Rika gets closer to him, staring straight at him with those peaceful eyes of hers, making the peaceful and happy sounds in his head louder with each passing second.

Rika is in reach, but doesn't notice Guzman has prepared another special punch for her until it's too late.

Tenshi's pointy keystone hits the back of Guzman's fist just before it makes contact with Rika, making him scream out in pain and scrunch to hold on to his hand.

Rika lands her sword on top of his hat, but the hat does its job and protects Guzman from harm, making Rika feel as though she's struck a mountain, yet holds on tightly to her sword, ignoring the recoil.

While Rika lands and recovers, Guzman is already facing Tenshi, saying "you bloody celestial, you're going to pay for that!"

Rika sees the gun on his hand and immediately takes flight once more, activating her Soraogan mode and flapping her wings using the little impulse they offer to speed up.

Tenshi summons a large keystone that falls in front of herself, then confidently says "go ahead! Waste a shot!"

Guzman wants to move straight to Tenshi, but Rika jumps right in front of him and forces him to lock hands with her.

Rika now holds Guzman's gun on her right hand, while pushing Guzman back with her left, and while she does, she tries to dismantle the gun.

Guzman hears a quick click, then the gun's bullet magazine falls to the ground.

Rika smiles while looking into his horrified eyes, then says "good, that one less piece!"

Without her notice, she reactivates Guzman's ring, so the man, though terrified, manages to react and kicks Rika's lower abdomen with his knee, using the extra strength provided by his activated ring.

Rika's face turns blue after the impact and her entire body seems to turn as hard and heavy as stone, the pain from her lower abdomen coursing through her nervous system.

Guzman takes the chance to kick Rika's ribs and push her away, then immediately tries to activate the hat's sound wave, only to discover that Rika's blow damaged the hat, rendering that feature completely useless.

Enraged, Tenshi rushes forth and tries to strike Guzman with her sword, shouting "cowards like you bathe in the deepest corners of hell!"

The temple girls are slowly recovering from his earlier attack, and all but Byakuren and Shou are standing up, and even Unzan is starting to form up again.

Guzman knows he is dead if he stays any longer, so in a desperate attempt to escape, he sinks his fingers into Tenshi's face, threatening to damage her eyes, then grabs his disarmed gun and uses the hilt like a club to strike Tenshi's head hard, and after the celestial falls to the ground, holding her face and writhing around while screaming in pain, he zips away down the road toward the Misty Lake.

Wincing in pain, Rika manages to get back up, just to watch Guzman run away again, and with anger in her face, she shouts "come back! Come back and finish the fight, you coward!"

Behind her, Rika hears Minamitsu cry out "Hijiri, wake up!", and when she turns around, Ichirin and Minamitsu gently shake the Buddhist monk, trying to wake her up.

Another cry makes Rika turn around to see Nazrin kneeling next to Shou, looking desperate at the lance, unable to figure out what to do, whispering "master? Master, what should I do?"

* * *

Rika looks all around herself, sorrow and despair claiming her heart, then she watches as Tenshi gets back on her feet, rubbing her teary eyes and saying to herself "geez, what a coward. I'll get him next time."

Listening to Tenshi's resolve, something inside Rika changes, and her sorrow and despair seem to get consumed by her own kindness and resolve, and that's when she realizes her hands are both glowing mint-green, and as if knowing what to do, she rushes to Byakuren and kneels beside her, sitting next to Minamitsu, then places her glowing hands on Byakuren's abdomen.

Ichirin, who sits at the other side of Byakuren, asks "wh-what are you doing?"

Minamitsu grabs Ichirin's hands, stopping her from stopping Rika, then points at Byakuren with her eyes, whispering "just watch."

Ichirin, the slowly reforming Unzan, and Minamitsu watch with awe as Byakuren starts breathing normally again, and the blackening bruise just under her rubs slowly vanishes.

Byakuren gasps for air the moment she opens her eyes, then shouts "girls, help!", but calms down the moment she sees Rika pulling her hands away and smiling tenderly at her.

Byakuren stares at Rika for a short moment, then whispers "Onkamikami..."

Rika suddenly gets up and turns around, then walks rapidly toward Shou.

Rika kneels to Shou's left, next to Tenshi, then looks at Nazrin with peaceful eyes, then says "this holy weapon won't harm her. Pull it out, so I can heal her."

Rika places her hand on Shou's left temple and left shoulder, and the agonizing look on Shou's face turns to a calm and blissful stare before she falls asleep on her knees.

Afterward, Rika's hand glows grey and she manages to pull the bullet out of Shou's shoulder with the same magic Patchouli used on Meiling, then continues healing the wound.

Without question, while Rika heals Shou's shoulder, Nazrin gets on her feet and pulls the spear from Shou's body, pulling from the back to make sure the sharp head doesn't do more damage, and she is amazed by how the weapon seems to slip off Shou's body without taking any more blood with it.

The moment the weapon is out of Shou's body, Rika closes her eyes and places her mint-green glowing hand directly on the open wound, healing it quickly right before Nazrin's own eyes.

After both wounds are healed, Rika whispers "wake up, miss Shou", then the youkai open her eyes and gasps at the sight of her fully healed body, the pain completely gone.

Tenshi smiles as she helps Rika up on her feet, then asks "hey, can I get some of that? I can barely see."

Without saying a word, Rika smiles and places her hand on Tenshi's eyes, soothing her burning eyes almost instantly.

Tenshi blinks to test out her eyes, then smiles and says "I gotta learn how to do that!"

Before they can all celebrate, Byakuren, who is being helped by Minamitsu, smiles at Rika, though shows concern with her smile, and says "please, we have to find Nue and Kogasa."

Rika smiles and nods, then says "I'll do what I can."

Minutes later, the girls find Kogasa, crouching next to Nue and crying while whispering "I'm sorry. I was no help to you."

Nue groans and whispers back "oh pipe down. I'll... be fine after a while."

Nue clenches her teeth as she winces in pain, then Kogasa looks toward the girls, showing a bleeding gash on the left side of her forehead, and smiles as she shouts "Hijiri-san! Over here! Quick, she's hurt!"

After seeing Kogasa's wound, both Byakuren and Rika rush to her and Nue, and immediately, Rika kneels next to Nue's right and asks "where does it hurt?"

Nue smiles, trying to hide the pain in her eyes as she says "he- augh... He broke my back."

Rika places her mint-green glowing hands on Nue's torso, startling Nue, who asks "hey, what are you doing?"

Rika smiles at the youkai and closes her eyes, intensifying the glow on her hands, then Nue feels the pain leaving her body, and shortly after, she gets back up on her own, her back repaired and the pain gone.

After Nue is alright, Kogasa jumps on her and give her a tight hug, saying "you are all better now! Miss angel saved you! Eh?"

By now, the entire Myouren Temple and Tenshi are standing beside Rika and Byakuren, and after Kogasa looks at Rika, the shrine maid grabs her cheeks and looks into her eyes, then says "my how cute. But that wound won't do. Here, come with me."

Rika pulls Kogasa on to her lap and uses a small cloth she pulls out of her pocket to clean the blood from her forehead with her right glowing hand.

Kogasa clenches her eyes, thinking she's going to feel pain, but she is surprised when she feels the gentle cloth swiping her forehead without causing any kind of discomfort.

She looks up to Rika's face with confusion, then says "hey, that didn't hurt."

Rika smiles at the youkai, making her smile back, then her eyes suddenly start to spin in place, and to everyone's, except Tenshi's surprise, Rika falls on her back with a goofy smile on her face.

Before anybody panics, Tenshi loudly says "relax, she just used too much energy. This girl is incorrigible, but... I guess that's why I like her so much."

Byakuren looks at Tenshi with concern at first, but places a hand on her chest, remembering her dress is torn, then blushes as she smiles and says "let's take miss Rika to the temple so she may rest. Miss celestial, you are welcome too if you'd like."

The temple girls all cheer in acceptance, then Tenshi smile brightly and says "don't mind if I do", then picks up Rika from the ground after Kogasa jumps off her lap, then follows after Shou, who takes the lead back to the temple.

* * *

Later, at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, at noon, Sakuya and Meiling lie on their backs on the gardens, spreading their arms and legs while panting heavily.

Meiling smiles and says "you, heh, did it Sakuya."

Sakuya manages to pull a wide smile as she pants and replies "ye-yeah... I... can't be... believe it."

After panting for a while longer, both start to laugh, then Sakuya suddenly says "we-well, time for... your medicine, Me-Meiling."

Meiling suddenly jumps on her feet with a frightened look on her face and says "w-wait! I-I'm feeling just fine!"

Sakuya gets up and glares at Meiling, already holding the last dark blue pill on her hand, and sounding a bit annoyed, she says "this is the last one. After this, there's no more. Either take it peacefully, or I'll have to do it for you again."

Meiling sweats out of nervousness and stutters before trying to take a step back, then trips and falls on her seat on the ground.

She looks up at Sakuya, who glares back with an ominous shadow on her face, then says "but I feel so weird when I take that, and I start saying so many weird things..."

Sakuya smiles, then shows Meiling she holds her Luna Dial again, letting it swing from her left hand while she smiles mischievously.

Meiling gasps, opening her mouth in surprise, and in an instant, she finds herself swallowing something, while Sakuya stares back with a most content and satisfied smile.

Meiling covers her mouth with both hands and says "oh no, not again... uuu~"

Meiling suddenly stands up with a strange and wriggled smile on her face, wraps her hands around Sakuya, then says "I love my Sakuya~"

Sakuya smiles, pats Meiling's head, and says "come on Meiling, time to go back inside."

Meiling looks at the mansion, releases Sakuya, then gives a hug to the mansion's door and says "I love my home~"

Inside, on one of the first floor corridors, Reimu, Marisa, Flandre and Remilia watch as Sakuya drags Meiling inside the house.

Flandre giggles and says "I'm going down there. Meiling's so much fun to tease like this!"

Marisa follows Flandre to the foyer, saying "let's see what kinds of secrets she spills out, ze."

Flandre chuckles, then says "last time she told me she wanted to nibble onee-sama's wings."

After Marisa and Flandre leave, laughing heartily as they disappear from sight, Remilia looks at Reimu and says "so, what are you doing here, Reimu? You should be resting. You're not a youkai like us."

Reimu smiles, though her smile bares an ominous shadow that seems to creep over to Remilia, threatening to wrap her in its claws.

Remilia shivers as she looks at Reimu, then asks "wh-what?"

Reimu smiles and finally speaks, and sounding ominous, she says "you know, lately I've been having these dreams where I'm this girl, and I've seen so many things through her eyes."

Remilia narrows her left eye while staring back at Reimu, thinking the maiden has lost her mind, then Reimu continues "I've seen deaths over and over, many guns like the one Guzman has, as well as other, larger guns. I've seen training sessions that seem to be the only moment of peace for a lonely heart, feeling anger and controlling said anger through thoughts of self-discipline, and I've even seen VIVIT over and over, and I figured out something, though I would like to know from your own lips, is there something ELSE I should know from the master and servant's pact?"

Remilia stares with confusion to Reimu for a moment, then suddenly smiles and flaps her hand as she says "ahh, it's just that then. I thought it was something serious."

Remilia ignores the ominously deadly smile form Reimu's face as she continues "you see, after the pact, the master and the servant will share their past through dreams and visions, which become stronger and clearer as time goes by. What you are seeing is your maid's past. Ahh, I guess I forgot to mention that."

When Remilia finishes, she notices Reimu's smile, and the gohei on her right hand.

She takes two steps back, asking "uh, Reimu? A-are you mad at me?"

Reimu smiles more naturally and says "oh, heavens, no~"

Remilia takes a deep breath of relief and wipes the cold sweat off her forehead, then says "phew, for a moment there I thought you were gonna-"

Remilia feels Reimu's gohei strike her head hard, and from the foyer, Sakuya, Flandre and Marisa, who are holding on to Meiling, trying to keep her from biting the rug, turn their heads toward the corridor when Remilia's scream reaches their ears.

Before long, Remilia runs across the first floor balcony on the foyer with streams of tears rushing out of her eyes as she turns around and screams "I'm sorry, I thought you knew- AAH~!"

Reimu quickly rushes after her, grabbing Remilia by her wings, then places the vampire on her belly on her own lap, raises her skirt, then continually spanks the vampire, making her wings straighten up and her eyes spray more tears with each strike.

While the others watch with awe from below, Reimu shouts "you nasty little imp, I'm going to punish you!"

Remilia cries out loud and says "don't say that while your punishing me, waaaaah~!"

Patchouli walks casually into the foyer, looks at Meiling, who is being held by Flandre and Marisa as she rubs her cheeks on Sakuya's chest, then looks up and watches as Reimu spanks Remilia with the palm of her hand, and Remilia crying "I'm sorry~! Forgive me already~!"

She looks back down, then back up again, then sinks her face inside her book, turns around, then calmly says to herself "I must be inside Koakuma's spell again."

* * *

Later, at the Myouren Temple, Rika wakes up inside Byakuren's room, and as she opens her eyes, fear takes her.

For a moment, all she can see is a blur, but Byakuren's soft voice calms her down as she says "relax. You're in my room, in the Myouren Temple. You gave us a bit of a scare, miss Rika."

Rika's sight slowly comes back, and she can see a familiar silhouette stand next to Byakuren's, then Tenshi says "finally, she's awake! Really, next time, save some energy for yourself! Your eyes were spinning and everything!"

Rika slowly reaches for her eyes and gently rubs them with the back of her hands, and when she opens them again, she can clearly see Byakuren and Tenshi looking down to her with smiles on their faces.

Rika smiles back and asks "and how are you all feeling?"

From beside the open door, Shou says "we should be the ones to ask that question! After all, you saved AND healed us!"

Rika manages to sit on the bed, then realizes the room is full, with all the temple girls, and Unzan, inside the room, all with smiles on their faces as they look back at Rika.

Byakuren places her hand on Rika's forehead, making Rika look at her kind and grateful smile, then says "just like your ancestors, you came and aided us! Not only that, you sacrificed yourself for our well being."

Byakuren grabs Rika's hand and holds it with both of hers, then says "thank you so much, Rika Onkamikami! You are a blessing to your family name!"

Shou steps up, kneels to Rika, and after Nazrin, Nue, Kogasa, Minamitsu, Ichirin and even Unzan kneel and bow to her, she says "the Myouren Temple acknowledges you as one of our own, and know that you, as always, are welcome in our home with our warm blessings."

Rika smiles and looks back at them in surprise, unable to find words to express her elation, then she hears her sword roaring to her right, and when she looks at it, sitting against the wall on its own, the crystal on the hilt glows so intensely, the entire room brightens up, filling up in a soothing energy, before the light dims down and everything settles.

Rika turns her head to look at Byakuren and bows with gratitude, then looks at the other girls, smiles, then says "thank all very much. Truly, I am most grateful, and I am also very glad to know I was such help to you."

Tenshi smiles as she sniffles and rubs her nose with her index finger, then says "you're such a nice cry baby. Don't ever change."

Rika giggles, then readies herself to get off the bed, setting her feet on to the ground on the side of the bed, then something heavy sets itself on her lap and prevents her from moving.

When she looks down, she sees Kogasa staring back up at her with glassy puppy eyes, bending her neck down a little bit.

Rika smiles and giggles, the rubs her head and says "you really are adorable."

Kogasa closes her eyes as she smiles, loving every moment of Rika's hand on her head, then the crystal on the hilt of Rika's sword glows light pink.

Rika's face suddenly turns serious as she says "wait, what about him? Did he come back for that magazine?"

Shou immediately approaches Rika with the gun's bullet magazine, then says "we haven't seen him, but if by magazine you mean this, then here it is."

Rika glares furiously at the magazine after hearing the click of the two bullets inside, then smiles with a scowl and says "alright. Please, hand it over. There's something I have to do with it."

Moments later, Rika stands in the center of the temple's courtyard, glaring at the bullet magazine on her left hand, while Tenshi and the Myouren girls all look at her with curiosity.

Rika throws the magazine to the air, and everything seems to slow down as she thinks "guns... Only death can be attained through these. They cannot defend anyone. The only thing they can do is destroy. For my lady Reimu, for mister Ail, for Gensokyo... I'll make sure this gun becomes a mere memory."

Rika now holds her sword with both hands, and as the magazine falls back to the ground, she slices it many times and so fast, even Byakuren gasps with amazement.

When she's done, and after she sheathes her sword, the magazine and the two bullets inside become mere shreds, and the gunpowder inside the bullets gets carried away with the wind.

Rika sighs, feeling as though a weight has left her shoulders, then turns around and smiles at the impresses girls, then thinks "I will not allow this maniacal monster destroy this paradise my lady Reimu has fought so hard for. I will fight for it, even if it means giving my life for it! I will."

* * *

That night, at the Kappa-pa resort, Nitori and Julia are inside a larger office, this one with a large window with plain view of the pool, the apartments and the artificial beach.

Nitori smiles as she draws on a large blueprint, then says "so no more bookings, and after the last guest leaves, we'll start remodeling! All the old stuff must be gone, and we will make new stuff. Maybe the artificial beach can be a bit more sunny, have some real fishes, and even some actual sea water might help."

Julia smiles as she looks at Nitori from beside the desk, then says "that's a wonderful idea lady Nitori... but how will you get all of that? It's not like miss Yukari will help you if you ask."

Nitori lifts her head, then smiles and says "Ail is my friend too. He'll help!"

Julia smiles and says "ah, then I guess that can work."

Nitori giggles, then returns to her blueprints and says "ah, we can have some slides on the new pool.. oh, but the new apartments will need windows too... and then we can have some hot tubs here... we'll add some mountains here, for climbing..."

There is a loud knock on the door, and a young man's voice comes through, sounding angry as he shouts "Nitori, did you make your choice?"

Nitori straightens up with a frightened face, gasping upon hearing that voice, then loudly says "um, come on in~!"

A male kappa with short black hair and a shell on his back, and a female kappa with blue hair that reaches to her shoulders, and also having a shell on her back, storm into the room as the male kappa angrily says "that's not what I asked!"

Nitori forces a nervous smile, then says "look, I understood what you meant, so I'm going to remodel the resort. I'll get rid of the old stuff and put in new and better stuff! You're going to love it!"

The male kappa growls, while the female sighs and face palms.

He gets closer to Nitori, making her even more nervous, then loudly says "you idiot, we're talking about that shady human! Are you going to keep him here, or are you going to do the right thing and send him to the village?"

Nitori stares back into the kappa's eyes, then fills herself up with courage and pushes him back, saying "you're just jealous I have a human friend and you don't! Besides, Guzman is going to help me rebuild this place. Just wait and see!"

The kappa groans with anger, and as Nitori returns to her blueprints, he rummages through his pockets, saying "alright, I didn't want to do this, but... Those tengu have been reporting vicious attacks outside by a human with extraordinary items on his possession and causing mayor problems!"

Rage fills Nitori as she looks at the two kappa, who seems to be looking desperately for something, then loudly says "you two get the hell out of here! Guzman is a kind man, and he'd NEVER do something like that!"

Angrily, the female kappa says "but it's precisely him who is being reported! Ugh, where is that darn newspaper!"

Nitori pulls out a large wrench, then the two kappa run away from the room after getting smacked a few times.

As they run away, Nitori shouts "and if you ever come back spewing lies like that again I'm going to use your shells as soup bowls!"

Panting as she enters the room and shuts the door with force, Nitori drops her wrench, then walks to the window to look outside.

She sighs, then says "I'll prove them all, Guzman is a good human! Dammit, now I'm too upset to work! Julia, could you save those for me? I'm going outside to swim this off!"

Julia bows to Nitori as she leaves the room, and says "as you wish, lady Nitori", then stares at the blueprints and a yellow scanning beam covers the entire desk.

Moments after Nitori leaves, a wheeled monitor, Julia's old body, enters the room, holding on to a rolled newspaper on its retractable hands.

Julia grabs it and opens it up, then looks at it and says "I need more evidence than this. I'm going to have to rely on those two for a little longer, but if they get more evince for me, I'll be able to convince lady Nitori. I better hide this for now... wouldn't want to upset her again. You take this to the control room and make sure she doesn't see it yet."

The wheeled computer accepts the newspaper roll and quickly rolls away, while Julia looks out the window and wonders why she is doing this behind her lady's back.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Gensokyo, Guzman sits on the ground while loading a new bullet magazine into his gun, saying "pheh, that demon took my last two bullets. Fine, I guess I'll have to use these rubber bullets... and these non-lethal magic bullets. Hmm, maybe I can make them a little more powerful."

* * *

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Budou and Guzman were created by Willie G.R.

Rika Onkamikami was created by Snapshot2010

AUG 29 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Yes, I know, I know! That bastard got to Hijiri. Honestly, I wanted to kill him, and the feeling only got worse during the proofing. Ah well, it was satisfying to see him getting terrified by Rika and hurt by Tenshi... though Rika gets pretty angry whenever she sees him. She wants that gun destroyed too, and it'd probably be the same for me. I hate guns. I truly believe like she and Ail, that guns are nothing more than a coward's killing tool. Ah well, that's my opinion anyway. Thanks for reading, leave a comment/review if you wish, take care, and see you next chapter, if the spirits will allow.**

**Second note:**

**I know very little of guns, and am not sure if "bullet magazine" is the right term. I hope this didn't ruin the story for you.  
**


	6. Chapter 6

It's a peaceful cloudy morning at the Human Village, and Medicine, accompanied by Su-San, walks back to Kyo's house, carrying a small, but heavy bucket full of water.

Her angry face comes accompanied by her annoyed grumbling as she says "stupid fat Kyo. ...does nothing at all."

Su-San nods at Medicine, acknowledging all she says, the Medicine turns to Su-San and says "and all because he's been busy playing guard around the shrine. Bah! I've been doing the same, and I'm not lazy!"

The doll youkai gasps in fright and drops her bucket to the ground when a rough voice from behind her asks "Medicine Melancholy?"

Medicine places her right hand on her chest, breathing rapidly before saying "don't DO that you idiot! What if you scare the poison out of..."

The moment she lays eyes on the tall red-skinned man with purple glasses in front of her, she gasps and tries to run, but trips and falls on her back, and Guzman immediately rushes to her and places Nitori's instant drier in her mouth and activates it for a brief second.

All the poison inside Medicine seems to either escape her body or dry out, then Su-San drops to the ground just as Medicine's eyes turn completely around, leaving only two large white orbs staring to the sky.

Guzman scoffs and uses a small and sharp rock to scrape off small bits of the doll's plastic skin from her fingers, then pulls out a small vial with yellow liquid inside and places an exact amount of the plastic skin inside of it, discarding the rest.

He smiles after placing a small cap on the vial and watches as the liquid turns lime-green, then looks back at Medicine and Su-San's lifeless bodies on the ground and casually says "thanks kid. Thanks to you, not even she will know how to counter this poison."

He chuckles as he strikes Medicine's face with the back of his hand, turning her face to the left as he gets up on his feet and walks away, whistling a peaceful tune to himself, quite content over his small accomplishment.

He takes off his glasses and hides them in his right pocket, takes his jacket off and wraps it around his waist, hiding his gun with it, then takes off his cowboy hat, and after struggling with them for a bit, he manages to tie it under the mirror cloak before placing it back on.

He looks around with a casual smile and says to himself "gotta be careful now. Don't want to be getting recognized too soon. After all, I'm making sure that demon girl is too busy to focus on me."

With those words, he makes his way toward the town's center, blending in with the many busy villagers that seem to be preparing the entire village for one grand festival.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Hakurei Shrine, Rika has returned to her usual self, happily sweeping the shrine grounds and caring for her mistress, though any sound, a whisper from the wind, and she's already lifting her head and looking for any signs of trouble, intent on intercepting Guzman as soon as he attacks again.

She suddenly gasps and grabs her broom like she would hold her sword and aims it at the source of Tenshi's loud voice behind her as she says "c'mon Rika~! Relax already!"

Rika sighs, and after relaxing and returning to her sweeping, she says "Tenshi, please lower your voice. You're going to wake miss Reimu up", and looking away from Tenshi, she whispers "and give me a heart attack."

Tenshi sits in the hot springs with a content smile on her face, and after a long and refreshing sigh, she says "whoops, sorry. But seriously girl, you need to calm down."

From inside the shrine, Marisa says "hey, loudmouth, you woke her up, ze."

Rika stares angrily through the makeshift bamboo walls of the springs straight at Tenshi, who smiles nervously and shrugs.

Inside the shrine, Marisa sits by the small table in the living room, smiling at Reimu as she gets out of her room, yet staring with worry.

Reimu is still a bit sleepy, but she notices the worried stare and says "Marisa, that's enough. I told you, I'm feeling much better already."

Marisa manages a real smile, then chuckles and says "well, you did spank a vampire until she cried like a baby."

Reimu smiles wide, then nods and says "she deserved that."

Reimu immediately notices the meal served on the table; steamed rice, rolled omelet, a small bowl of miso soup and a side-dish of pickles.

Reimu stares at the meal, then looks at Marisa, who says "I helped a little, da-ze."

From outside, Rika shouts "she prepared the rice, my lady."

Reimu is somehow already sitting in front of her breakfast, bowing her head a little and saying "thanks for the meal."

Both Marisa and Rika say "you're welcome", at the same time, making Reimu giggle as she picks up her chop-sticks.

The moment Reimu picks up the bowl of rice, a bolt of lightning from the scarlet clouds above strikes the shrine's ground in front of the entrance, and from this bolt, Iku appears, looking seriously toward the inside of the shrine before slowly floating toward the open entrance.

As soon as she has Reimu in sight, she stops and stares at the maiden as she drinks from her soup, as though ignoring her.

Marisa bluntly asks "what do you want, oarfish?"

From the front of the shrine, Rika stares at Iku, while Tenshi peeks from the corner, wearing no clothes or a towel, evident when Rika blushes and rushes to cover her up with towel that floats just above her head at that moment.

Iku takes a bit of air, then says "a great calamity is to befall in the form of a weak soul with great strength and powers through curses beyond comprehension, though these curses were meant to be blessings. Before this soul returns to the lost path, he shall hurt all that surround a greater soul, striking them all with unbearable pain."

Reimu stares back at Iku with her chopsticks hanging from her mouth, then casually says "but we already know about Guzman, and he's already done quite a lot of damage."

Iku seems to be in a trance and doesn't reply, so Marisa stands up and quickly gets closer to the oarfish youkai, and with a mischievous smile on her face, she tries to grab Iku's sash, but the moment her hand touches it, Iku wakes up, smiles, and excitedly wraps her left arm around Marisa's neck.

She looks around and asks "well, what do we have here? Reimu, how are you? Say, have any of you seen miss eldest daughter?"

Marisa's face turns a bit red as Iku squeezes her against herself, then says "oi, you're pretty soft, ze."

Iku's face turns bright red, then she pushes Marisa away to the shrine's porch, and as Reimu walks out to sit next to Marisa with a cup of hot green tea, Iku whimpers and says "that's none of your business!"

Reimu sighs, then says "Tenshi's over there", then points at Rika, who is begging Tenshi to put on her skirt, then continues "so why don't you just go over there and greet her?"

Iku looks at Tenshi with longing eyes, then says to herself "so that's why she's not hanging out with me... oh well."

The oarfish realizes Marisa and Reimu are staring straight at her, and after a moment of hand-waving panic, she composes herself and says "anyway, I came over here to do you a great favor and predict the weather for you!"

Reimu looks completely uninterested and bluntly says "go home."

Iku completely ignores Reimu, and with a smile on her face, she closes her eyes and the long ribbons on her hat start moving around as though they are antennas.

After they stop, the left one straight up, and the right one going straight to the left, she opens her eyes and says "it's going to be cloudy all day, so please don't go washing your clothes, or they just won't dry."

Tenshi now stands next to Iku, wearing her skirt backward and smiling as she asks "Iku-san, are you bored?"

Iku's eyes hide under a dark shadow as she looks to the ground, seemingly embarrassed, then looks away from Tenshi and says to herself "it's boring without you up there."

* * *

Later that day, at the Human Village, Kyo walks out of his house, angrily saying "I'm gonna go look for that lazy slob. She's probably trying to steal those dolls from the school again."

From inside, Luna loudly says "fine. I'll be at the shrine then. Maybe Aya's there too."

Kyo takes one step away from his door while looking back and saying "hey, don't go by yourself. Just wait for-", but when he turns his head, he pushes himself back, avoiding an accidental kiss with Yumemi, who stands right in front of him with a wide smile on her face.

Blinking her eager red eyes while staring at Kyo, who looks back with shock, she asks "going to the Hakurei Shrine? Can I go with you?"

Behind her stands Chiyuri with an annoyed face, sounding equally annoyed as she says "you should really watch what you're doing there, Yumemi."

Kyo nods and whispers "I almost kissed you, you idiot!"

Confused, Yumemi blinks again, then turns her eyes slightly to the right and says "well, that would be very embarrassing, wouldn't it miss Luna?"

Luna stands to Kyo's left with a very annoyed look on her face, trying to fake a smile, and says "oh yes, I believe it would."

Kyo gulps and says to Luna "my lips are over here, alright."

Luna ignores Kyo and glares at Yumemi as she says "well I'm sorry, but you can't come. I don't think Reimu is in the disposition to be entertaining nuisances today."

Yumemi sweats and says "oi, that's the same thing they said about Hijiri."

Chiyuri sighs and face palms, then says "for once in your life, read the mood!"

Luna takes the chance to pull the Bunbunmaru Newspaper and place it right in front of Yumemi's face, showing her a blurry picture of Guzman and saying "see here? This monster has been causing mayor problems, and yesterday, he hurt Byakuren and almost did something terrible to her."

Yumemi glares at the picture and says "but that's just it! I may have something to counter him! From what I read in this Kakashi Spirit News paper, this guy uses some interesting gadgets, and I happen to be an expert in gadgets."

Chiyuri flaps her hand under her own nose, saying "hey, hey, don't go saying unnecessary things."

Kyo opens his mouth to complain, but he stops and glares at the swirling concentration of clouds at the town's center.

Luna and Yumemi join Kyo's glare, then Luna says "I have a bad feeling too!"

Yumemi pulls out a strange silver pistol that has a pointed end, then says "this could be it! Chiyuri, to arms!"

Chiyuri holds two, much larger version of Yumemi's little pistol, and with an eager smile on her face, and in a commanding tone, she shouts "enough gawking! SCURRY, YOU MANGY DOGS!"

Kyo, Luna and Yumemi salute Chiyuri and shout "aye-aye" at the same time, then look at each other in surprise and annoyance after realizing what Chiyuri had just said.

Kyo is the first to break the awkward moment, saying "ignore it! Just move!"

Everyone nods, then all find themselves flying straight to the center of the village, Yumemi and Chiyuri with little white hovering nodes under their shoes.

* * *

Meanwhile, Guzman stands next to the dragon statue in the village's center, brazenly touching the statue while in plain sight, admiring the white jewels it has for eyes, smiling as he gets his hands closer to the left-eye jewel and watching as it slowly turns pink, then starts getting more and more red.

He chuckles and says to himself "huh, Julia's intel was right on the mark again. I guess that teacher should be here any second now. After she's dead... I'll get that demon woman."

He slowly moves his hand toward that left eye with excitement filling his face, but he rapidly turns around and looks to the sky when Kyo's war cry reaches him.

Guzman rolls underneath the dragon's neck, avoiding Kyo's fiery sword, then Kyo immediately chases after him, hoping to prevent Guzman from recovering and attacking.

From the sky, Luna, Yumemi and Chiyuri cheer on Kyo, while from the school, the near-by disturbance catches Keine's attention.

The moment she lays eyes on the red skinned man, she grabs the two closest children and pulls them away from the window, shouting "it's that Guzman! Everyone, get away from that window!"

Kyo ruses to Guzman and swings his sword hard on to his back, but is pushed back by the robe's defenses, which also cause some small fireballs to fly up to the sky, forcing Luna and Yumemi to dodge, while Chiyuri quietly glares toward the battle, missing two fireballs by inches from her own face.

Guzman slowly stands up, laughing while Kyo takes some time to recover from the recoil.

After standing up and pulling his cowboy hat from underneath his cloak, quickly placing back on his head, Guzman laughs and says "you should have aimed for my head. Now it's too late, and I'll have to kill you."

Kyo manages to jump away, just as Guzman pulls out his gun and shoots Kyo with the rubber bullets.

Kyo summons his wind shield and manages to deflect another bullet, making Guzman face fill with a maddened smile and start to cackle while lowering his own defenses.

Kyo takes the chance to strike him with the shield, and manages to push him, but Guzman continues to smile as he says "good, GOOD! You are a WORTHY opponent!"

Kyo immediately shouts back "you're going down, mad-man!", and lunges his sword straight at Guzman's crazed face.

Luna covers her face, while Chiyuri continues to glare, and Yumemi looks on with great excitement, thinking "he deflected those with magic! U-hu-hu~, what a discovery."

When Luna uncovers her eyes, she notices either man is moving.

Kyo stands still, lunging his sword in front of himself, while Guzman is crouching, looking up at Kyo with that maddened smile.

Chiyuri clenches her teeth and says "go and help him now!", but Luna only looks back with curiosity.

Guzman looks up at Kyo with his fist impacting Kyo's abdomen, and says "too slow", then punches his stomach hard a second time, sinking his fist in his abdomen, forcing Kyo's sword and shield to disappear, and while Kyo holds his stomach and coughs, Guzman kicks his face and sends him rolling away.

While Kyo lies on the ground, Guzman unsheathes his gun again and shoots Kyo's back twice at point blank, then says "these may be rubber, but they can still hurt, and the spell makes them hit twice as hard."

Kyo screams in pain and Luna quickly dives to save him, unsheathing both her gun blades and calling for Kyo at the top of her lungs.

Guzman turns around just as Luna is in range, then drops on his back and kicks her stomach, using her own energy to roll backward and back on his feet, and making her crash against the hard dragon statue.

As she stands up, moaning in pain, she smiles when she notices Guzman is not paying attention to the unconscious Kyo.

Guzman rushes to her, hoping to put her down before she can stand up, but Luna instinctively aims her gun blades and shoots Guzman's face with her multi-colored danmaku knives, startling him to a stop, then rushes to attack him.

Guzman shoots three times back at her as fast as he can, so Luna is forced to stop and use her swords to deflect the bullets with ease.

She glares back at Guzman, keeping his attention on her, so Yumemi thinks it's the best moment to attack, silently lands behind him, takes out her small gun, then shoots a colorful beam to his back.

To her dismay, the mirror cloak does its job and sends her own beam back at her, causing her to freeze in fright.

Chiyuri strikes Yumemi with a folding chair, knocking her out of harm's way, shouting "move, you idiot!", and avoiding the beam herself.

Guzman frowns and changes his gun magazine for a new one, aims at Chiyuri, and after activating the gun's black magic, he shoots a rubber pullet and strikes the exposed right side of her hip, causing her to scream out in pain and fall to the ground, curled up into a ball.

Yumemi calls out to Chiyuri and tries to force her to lie straight, yet Chiyuri curls back, trembling and clenching her eyes and teeth with unbearable pain, then Yumemi notices the small trickle of blood rolling down her skin.

Yumemi cries out "oh no! D-don't worry, I got you!"

While this happens, Luna tries to cut Guzman's neck with her blades, but Guzman holds them with his bare hands, smiles, then says "I'm not here for you", then manages to activate his ring and zips right behind Luna, kicking her back as hard as he can.

As she flies uncontrollably toward Yumemi and Chiyuri, Guzman says to himself "shit, she's a fighter too", then chases after her.

After Luna crashes against the girls, Guzman appears right beside her and shoots her back without hesitation, making her scream out in pain, then kicks her and Yumemi toward the porch of the closest house.

* * *

Having dealt with his obstacles, Guzman heads back to the dragon's statue with a smile on his face, but stops beside Kyo, lifts his unconscious body with one hand, then gets him close.

With a smile on his face, he says "go to your woman. I don't like her anyway", then throws Kyo straight to the girls, preventing Yumemi from being able to get back up, and causing Chiyuri to yelp out in pain, the wound on her waist stinging her again after getting pinned by Kyo's body.

Guzman frowns as he looks at them and says to himself "if I had my bullets... Pathetic scum like them are best killed on the spot... Oh well, I'll just snap their necks after I kill that demon woman."

He continues his way to the statue and immediately places his hand on the left eye.

The second his hand touches the dragon's eye, the statue roars and both eyes turn red, as if trying to scare away the brazen and disrespectful man, but Guzman just glares back at the statue, then smiles as he struggles to pull the eye off.

His smile soon vanishes when he hears a woman call "Land Sign, Three Sacred Treasures – Sword!", then he is forced to let go of the eye before a sword cuts his wrist off.

He roars with fury at his attacker, but suddenly smiles and says out loud "yes! The teacher is here!"

Keine glares at him, showing a bit of fear in her eyes as she points her sword at him and says "you have no right to be touching those jewels! Not t-that it matters to you, Guzman. I'll stop you here and now!"

Guzman smiles wide, showing almost all his teeth to the history teacher, and as he stares at her he says "well, well, well, I would have paid more attention in class with a teacher like yourself. Quite the gorgeous creature you are... miss half-youkai."

Keine blushes and gasps, the fear she already feels in her heart increases after hearing Guzman saying he likes her.

Trying to sound brave, Keine narrows her eyes and says "all I need is to get close enough, then I'll make it so you never found this village."

Guzman bows, acting as though he's an elegant man, then says "I'm so sorry, miss, but if you do that..."

He raises his head to look at Keine, and sounding ominous, he says "I won't be able to kill that demon maiden."

Keine gasps and whispers "Reimu", then moves as fast as she can to attack Guzman.

He remains bowing and looking up to her, smiling while doing so, and just as Keine's sword touches his hat, he disappears from sight.

Keine looks around, breathing heavily, anxiety taking over her as she thinks of all the possible things that man could do to Reimu, the one she mistakenly think he's after.

Very suddenly, Guzman appears right behind her with the vial of lime-green liquid already open and pressing it against her nose while wrapping his right arm around her neck with all his strength.

The second she coughs, he pushes the vial into her mouth, and the instant the liquid touches her tongue, her eyes turn empty as they expand, her limbs turn limp, and her body quickly becomes a puppet for Guzman's entertainment.

The vile man grabs Keine by her arms and lifts her up, bouncing her around and giggling as he says "ohh, look at me, I'm a sexy little history puppet! HA-HA-HA! Well, enough of this!"

He grabs her shoulders and throws her next to the dragon god's statue, making sure her head turns to the school, where she sees the worried faces of her students gazing out the window, some looking as though are willing to jump out and save her.

In her mind, she repeats "please stay inside. Please stay inside", and as she does, Guzman walks beside her and says "you can't erase that from happening, can you?"

The fear she initially felt escalates to new heights when she hears those words, then Guzman continues "yes, I know about you. I know that you have to know what is it you are erasing in history, or else, you can't erase it, so I finished this little experiment just a moment ago."

Guzman smiles when he notices the tears escaping Keine's eyes, then says "aww, I'm sorry. Did I make you cry? HAH! That poison paralyzes all, but your vital organs, your eyes and your brain. You can see them, but you can't protect them, can you?"

Guzman reaches for his left back pocket and pulls out a single orange disk with a polished back, then tosses it toward the school.

The disk rolls all the way to the immediate surrounding area of the school, then splits up and surrounds the front yard of the school, then aims its polished part toward its roof.

Guzman smiles, then says "despair as they die before your very eyes."

The disks seem to reflect a momentary beam of light from the sun that shines right through the clouds, and that momentary beam is enough for all disks to absorb it, amplify it, then reflect it back to the school's roof.

It immediately catches fire and the children inside all scream for dear life, making Guzman laugh heartily and shouts "watch! Watch as they die right before your eyes! Life isn't fair, is it? Suffer your last moments of it, so that hell may seem like PARADISE to you!"

More tears run down Keine's eyes, unable to help the children, yet being able to hear their terrified screams, watching as their lives are in danger of being cut short, and listening to this vile monster enjoy the torture he's putting her through.

Guzman laughs for a while more, then frowns and heads straight to the dragon's statue, grabs the left eye once more, then rips it off with ease, thanks to the power the ring gives him, and making the statue itself roar with rage.

Keine can hear the click form the eye being ripped off its socket, then despair takes over her.

She wants to move; she wants to save the children, kill this monster, erase this even from ever happening, and replace the sacred jewel back on the statue, but her despair soon takes over her mind when she feels Guzman's hand on her waist.

He kneels next to her, slowly passing his hand all around her abdomen while saying "I guess I can make you feel better through this despair... What, you want me to? Good then."

The second the school's front door bursts open, Guzman aims his gun and fires straight at the children, who run back inside the burning building out of fear, making Keine's tear flow incessantly down to the ground.

Guzman turns her head to him, then smiles and says "now, let's get this over with..."

Guzman's smiles suddenly vanishes, yet Keine's despair prevents her from seeing this, then he looks at her tear-soaked face and asks "did it just get too quiet around here?"

* * *

Meanwhile, Rika is happily attending Reimu at the Hakurei shrine, forgetting all about Guzman, while Tenshi and Marisa try to mimic Iku's moves, hoping to be able to summon lightning like her, though their efforts fail them.

The roar from the dragon's statue at the village alerts all in the shrine of danger, but for Iku, it's like a call to attack, and the very second the roar reaches her ears, her expression changes to frightful rage, and she disappears with a powerful bolt that sends both Marisa and Tenshi flying against the trees, all the way to the edges of the courtyard.

Rika runs out of the shrine, shouting "what's going on?"

Reimu is already flying out and shouting "MOVE! To the village!"

Back at the village, Mokou stands in front of the school, doing her best to block any bullet Guzman might fire, keeping the children safe with help from Yumemi, both keeping their distance from him, seeing as he has his boot on Keine's neck and threatens to break it should anyone get close.

Using her own explosive fire, Mokou manages to subdue the rest of the fire on the school's roof with a powerful blast that sends dirt flying straight on to the fire, and is now protecting Yumemi, as she helps the children run away toward their homes, back to their parents.

Guzman presses his foot on to Keine's neck, then says "don't try it, immortal. Unlike you, she CAN die."

Mokou foams at the mouth after she snarls, her blind rage forces her phoenix wings to sprout momentarily, then she shouts "you weak little cockroach, when I get my hands on you..."

A curtain of lightning bolts shower around the dragon god's statue, and with a blinding flash of light, Iku appears in front of it, baring large fangs, her eyes glowing red and roaring as she glares at Guzman.

While he's covering his eyes from the blinding flash, Mokou takes this chance and tackles him with all her might, away from Keine, forcing him to drop the dragon's eye to the ground next to the history teacher, as she tries to burn him while flying away to the south with him wrapped around her vengeful arms.

After reaching the village's exit, Mokou's rage and frustration only rise when she sees Guzman smiling and laughing as his skin burns with her fire, so she loosens her grip to grab him by the collar of his shirt, then throws him with all her might to the ground, not caring whether he survives the long fall or not.

Guzman laughs as he falls face-first to his death, but at the last second he manages to use his own arms as springs and rolls safely, saving his head form busting on the ground.

Mokou lands in front of him, surrounding herself with fire, and looking enraged at him she shouts "I'll make you scream like a girl!"

Guzman smiles and extends his arms, welcoming Mokou's attack, then shouts "COME ON! Try and kill me already!"

Mokou growls and rushes toward Guzman, surrounding herself with fire, aiming to melt him while grappling her hands with his.

Smiling, Guzman grunts "you know, I can kill you all I want, and you'll just keep coming back for more. You'd make a man very happy, you know."

Mokou snarls and replies "go to hell, you sack of garbage!", then expulses so much power, Guzman's cloak activates and causes all of it to return to her in an instant.

Mokou's scream echoes all the way back to the village as her own fire consumes her from within, then takes a step back and falls to the ground.

Guzman now stands on Mokou's body, placing his boot on her neck and killing her every time she revives while saying "you know, you really are a pain. Thanks to you, I lost the jewel, and thanks to that, I won't be able to kill the maiden. My plan failed."

After satisfying himself and killing Mokou one last time, he steps off the immortal, rummages through his right back pocket, and pulls a small black box.

Just as Mokou revives again, he presents the box to her and just as she recovers, he says "sorry, but as fun as this is, I have a mission to accomplish before going after Ail, regardless of your interference."

Mokou opens her eyes and watches as the box turns to a large monitor, and from it, a powerful and blinding flash makes her scream and lose her sight, and even with her eyes closed, all she sees is the blinding flash burning her eyes.

As she writhes around in pain, Guzman pockets the black box again and says "now, to get back to business. Gotta get those disks back, then figure out another plan to draw out that demon girl."

* * *

Back at the village, Iku continues to unleash her lightning bolts and roars with fury at anyone who gets close, even if it is to try and help Keine, who lies so close to the statue.

Chiyuri holds her bruised and bleeding hip, then shouts "what the hell should we do now?"

Kyo, who helps Luna to keep on her feet, looks down and shouts "I don't know! Iku's normally very peaceful! What's gotten into her?"

From behind them, accompanied by various villagers, Yumemi shouts "maybe it has to do with that left eye."

The villagers gasp and exclaim at the sight of the defiled statue, its left eye missing.

Reimu comes flying down, signaling Rika and the other to stay in the air, then shouts "everyone get back!"

All but Kyo and Luna take a few steps away from Reimu, and Chiyuri quickly makes her way to Yumemi.

Reimu slowly approaches Iku and softly says "calm down... I'm here to help. Just... let me get my friend here, then we'll get right on..."

A mighty roar escapes the normally calm youkai, forcing Reimu to take a step back as more lightning showers right in front of the maiden, missing Keine's paralyzed body by a miracle.

Reimu sighs, unable to think what to do, and that's when Rika's sword roars with fury, though only Reimu and Rika can hear it, and only Rika can understand it.

Reimu immediately shouts "Rika, what did it say?"

Rika looks to the ground from the air, then gasps when she spots a white glint from the ground next to Keine.

As she dives down, she shouts "don't worry miss Reimu, I know how to fix this!"

Ignoring Reimu's commands to turn back, Rika manages to dive between lightning bolts and grabs the dragon's eye jewel from the ground, immediately showing it to Iku and stopping her from attacking any more.

Reimu sighs and says "so incorrigible. Rika, don't make any sudden moves. Allow her to give you permission to get closer first."

Rika shivers for a moment, then says "s-sure thing."

Iku stares at Rika's hand with great interest, then closes her mouth as she gets closer to the shrine maid's offering.

After looking at the jewel for a short time, Iku slowly opens her mouth as she snarls, then roars at Rika, but Rika's sword roars in a manner that Iku is able to hear it, then immediately backs away, looking at Rika with docile eyes and bowing her head, causing the jewel on Rika's sword to glow blue.

Reimu loudly says "stand up and place it in the statue!", making Rika react and stand up, then walk to the statue and place the eye back in its place.

With a quick click, the stone sets itself back in its socket, then both eyes turn red, and almost instantly, Iku seems to fall asleep, then quickly wakes up and says "he-hey, something's up at the village... wait, I am at the village?"

She looks at Rika and instinctively gives her a hug and exclaims "miss Rika, how are you? You know, we really should hang out in heaven a little more."

Rika smiles sheepishly as she replies "er, yeah... we should. Um, when it doesn't inconvenience my lady."

Reimu sighs with relief, placing her hand on her chest and whispering "phew, she's back to normal."

Rika manages to free herself from Iku's friendly hug, then watches as Reimu and Yumemi tend to Keine, looking into her empty eyes and wondering how to help. Reimu desperately asks "what is wrong with her? Is she...?"

Yumemi immediately replies "she was poisoned! I heard him say it was something he came up with just moments ago."

Rika approaches them, then kneels next to Keine and places her mint-green glowing hand on her forehead, helping Keine close her eyes.

Reimu smiles, then says "let's take her back to the school. We'll decide what to do afterwards."

* * *

While everyone else is inside the school, and Iku leaves back to the heavens, Rika's heart feels a certain uneasiness and decides to take a quick walk around the village.

She feels drawn to the south and seems to be mentally preparing herself for what's to come, evident in her courageous and resolute eyes.

She walks between two houses and quickly jumps and rolls on the ground upon hearing two bangs, and avoids two shots by inches.

From somewhere behind one of the houses, Guzman's ominous voice reaches her ears as he says "I wasn't expecting you to come by after the immortal interfered. You have no idea how... happy I am to see you. Now... die, you demon."

Guzman hides on a tree branch, hidden between many red leaves, and having Rika in his sights.

He smiles as he aims at her, thinking "what luck. I came back to pick the disk, and there she is, at my mercy."

Rika suddenly vanishes from his sight, confusing Guzman, then appears right behind him with her Soraogan blood limit already activated, and with all her might, she kicks him hard and knocks him out of hiding.

Anger is evident in her eyes, and without hesitation, she activates a skill card and says to herself "Gemonji Rangeki Zero."

Rika shifts her power to darkness with her Heaven or Hell power, and unsheathes her sword, surrounding it in dark energy until it becomes raw darkness, then jumps high to the air, turning her sword into a dark lance, then throws it straight at Guzman.

The evil human recovers in time to jump away from the lance, but quickly finds himself being pulled in by a dark vacuum as the dark lance explodes, but before being consumed, he manages to shoot Rika's leg, making her yelp and fall to the ground.

Guzman tries to crawl away from Rika's attack, but it's too late, and his scream of pain alerts all in the village to his presence.

Rika manages to roll before crashing to the ground, then shakes off the stinging pain and rushes to continue her attack on Guzman, even though she doesn't have a sword.

Guzman trembles as he pushes himself back up, as the pain from the explosive spell burns all the way down to his bones, yet he laughs when Rika is close by, thinking of taunting her again, but instead, he finds himself succumbing to the laughter of the children in his mind, and receiving a powerful kick to the face.

Rika jumps to the air, aiming to punch Guzman's stomach with a powerful downward punch, but Guzman sees her and rolls away with a smile just in time.

Rika spots her sword and immediately rushes to it, while Guzman summons all his will to shoot at Rika with his last three rubber bullets, but Rika moves too fast and avoids the first two, then grabs her sword and instinctively deflects the third one.

Guzman finally gets up, grabs the buckle of his belt and separates it, revealing a smaller, square buckle underneath it, while the larger one he holds becomes a knife.

Rika snarls after spotting the knife in his hand, but quickly makes her way to him, trying a quick slash, but Guzman robe protects him again.

He laughs and says "I'm gonna kill you, and when I do, I can finally hunt down that Ail in peace!"

Rika rushes to him and shouts "you'll be out of Gensokyo long before that happens!", then tries a diagonal-down slash, but misses and gives Guzman the chance to attack.

She pushes back Guzman's knife with one hand, while swinging her sword backwards, and to both their surprise, the blunt edge of her sword passes through the barrier and knocks Guzman's hat off after striking the right side of his head.

Guzman holds his head in pain, then crouches on the ground as though having being severely cut, but Rika doesn't care and aims to repeat the attack by turning her sword around and attack, but stops when she hears a girl shouting "help! Someone please help me! I can't see!"

Guzman continues to cover himself, hiding his maddened eyes as his head plays the loud laughs of a child and the loud voice of a woman calling out to her children.

The sounds change abruptly, and instead, he now hears a child crying out loud "wake up! Please, wake up! Don't leave me~!"

Guzman screams along with the child inside his mind, and like a frightened child, he flails his arms and stabs Rika's right shoulder with his knife, then runs away to the west, screaming like a frightened child as he does.

Rika thinks of chasing after him, but stops when she sees that the source of the earlier voice is Mokou, who is covering her eyes with her hand while stumbling around and shouting "please, someone help!"

Rika pulls off the knife of her shoulder, wincing in pain after going so, then realizes the villagers surrounding the area are all staring at her sword, so she manages to sheath it, and immediately, the villagers get closer.

Rika rushes to Mokou and holds her by her shoulders, softly saying "don't worry miss Mokou, I'm a friend."

The villagers all rush forth to help, just as Tenshi and Marisa reach the scene and land right next to Rika and Mokou, quickly assisting the girls.

* * *

Later, at Keine's school, Reisen, who happens to have come by with her large bag full of medicines, tends to Keine with the help of Marisa, who is mostly watching, rather than actually helping.

Reimu finishes wrapping Rika's arm with a bandage, when Mokou says "...and that's when he used this strange black thing to flash my eyes... Now all I can see is this white light. It HURTS!"

Rika instinctively stands up, worrying Reimu, who says "Rika, you should rest for a bit."

Rika smiles and bows her head to Reimu, then says "don't worry my lady. I'll be just fine."

Reimu sighs, knowing nothing she says this time will change Rika's mind, then just sits and watches as Rika activates her healing hands.

Mokou feels Rika's warm hands wrapping themselves around her eyes and head, but before she panics, Rika says "it's alright. You're going to be alright now, miss Mokou."

When Rika's hands leave her, Mokou opens her eyes and can see as clearly as ever, and without wasting another second, she rushes to Keine and Reisen.

Rika smiles and looks at the worried face Mokou is making, so she walks straight to her and Keine.

Chiyuri winces and yelps when Yumemi places a piece of cotton and alcohol on her badly bruised wound and says "quit moving, you cry-baby."

Rika turns her head gasps at the sight of the large bruise and dried blood on Chiyuri's hip, then rushes to her and says "hold on, I can heal that."

Yumemi gasps and throws the forceps, cotton ball and alcohol bottle away, and excitedly asks "you're using magic? Can I see? How do you do that? Can I do it too? HOW?"

Rika giggles and says "just observe", then places her mint-green glowing hands on Chiyuri's hip and says "guess you could say my desire for helping others is the reason I do this. If you want to do something like this too, you need to first learn about the elements and their magical properties. There are many books about that subject in the Scarlet Devil Mansion."

Yumemi stares at Rika's face, then looks at Chiyuri's wound, and how it almost disappears after Rika is done healing it, then smiles.

Chiyuri moves her hip around, testing to see if it hurts, and after realizing she is cured, she jumps on Rika and gives her a hug, then says "this girl's awesome! Thank you, thank you, thank you! It doesn't hurt anymore!"

The jewel on Rika's sword glows blue, then Yumemi suddenly joins in the hug, making Rika feel a bit uncomfortable, then says "she could make a wonderful teacher!", making the jewel glow blue a second time.

After escaping the awkward group hug, Rika walks to Kyo and Luna, who sit under the blackboard side-by-side, and both seem to tense up a bit when they look up at Rika.

Not giving them the chance, she crouches and places her hands on their foreheads, relieving the pain from their bruises, healing their bodies, and somehow calming them both down.

Kyo looks up and says "but I thought you hated me."

Rika smiles and says "well, I do have to punish all who unsettle my lady Reimu, but that doesn't mean I hate you."

Kyo smiles back at Rika, then nods and says "tanks", then Luna sighs, feeling as though something dark and heavy leaves her heart, then adds "I misjudged you after all."

The jewel on Rika's sword glow bright blue two more times, then Rika smiles back at the pair, then her face completely changes to concern as she asks "hey, where is little Medicine?"

Kyo and Luna realize they haven't seen her all day, and worry immediately fills their hearts.

A gap opens just above them, but nothing happens.

Rika looks into it for a moment, then smiles and extends her hands in front of herself.

Shortly after, a child wrapped in a white sheet, along with two poisonous flowers form the Nameless Hill, fall down the gap and straight on to Rika's arms.

Rika gently places the child on the floor and unwraps the sheets, revealing Medicine's unsettling face, her eyes still turned around, and looking like an old broken puppet with its mouth wide open.

Just before the gap closes, Su-San falls down, and Kyo catches her before she hits the floor, while Rika passes her gentle hands over Medicine's forehead and helping her take a light breath of air and close her eyes and mouth, ignoring the burning pain on her skin.

Luna gasps and exclaims "you fool, you're skin is-"

Rika lifts her reddened hand to Luna, ignoring the pain on it, then says "it's alright. Just make sure she breathes in the fumes from this flower... I think I know why mister Ail sent the second one."

Kyo and Luna stare with shock and confusion at Rika, but look down when Medicine grabs Rika's skirt and lightly pulls on is, then whispers "thanks... miss...", then falls back to sleep.

Rika smiles as her sword's jewel, once again, glows blue, then takes the second flower and heads over to Keine, Reisen and Mokou.

* * *

Reisen injects a purple drug on Keine's arm, relaxing her stiff body, then sighs and says "it's all I can do until I get Master. She'll find a cure, I'm sure."

Mokou excitedly shouts "what? That's not good enough!"

Rika gets close to Keine and places the poisonous flower under her nose, while Reisen says "look, I'm sorry, but I'm just an apprentice. Please, let me get Master and she'll bring Keine back in-"

Before she finishes her sentence, Reisen and Mokou notice Keine's left leg twitching, then look at each other with surprise and Mokou asks "did you do that?"

Reisen blinks and asks "no! did you?"

When they look to Keine's head, Rika has her glowing left hand on Keine's forehead while holding the poisonous flower under her nose, softly saying "breathe in slowly now... That's it, just a little more. The poisons should cancel each other out real soon."

Tenshi stands next to Reimu, who has a very worried face, and after face palming herself, she says "you're gonna faint again! Take it easy already."

Rika giggles and softly replies "I'll be alright."

A tear escapes Keine's left eye, just before she opens both eyes, then Rika pulls her hand and the flower away and says "you should be alright now, miss Keine."

Before Keine manages to sit up, Mokou grabs her and embraces her tightly, saying "Keine~! You're alright! Thank goodness! Keine, I'm so sorry! I didn't know until it was too late, and-"

Keine sniffles, then says "I panicked... I panicked and he toyed with me."

Rika places her hand on Keine's head, getting the teacher's attention, then smiles and says "don't allow him, miss Keine. That's how he works. A cowardly tactic of draining his opponent's mind and will before attacking. Don't think any less of yourself, miss Keine. After all, he's just a coward. You're the brave one here! You confronted him to protect what is yours and those you love."

As she stares into Rika's sky blue eyes, Keine can feel a calming wave inside her own body, covering her from her head to her toes like a blanket.

She sniffles and dries her tears with her right hand, then smiles and says "you're right. Everything came out alright in the end after all. Th-thank you so much, miss Rika."

Again, the jewel on Rika's sword glows blue, then Mokou calls for Rika's attention, and as her cheeks turn a bit pink, she looks to the ground and says "I, um, didn't thank you properly, miss. So, um... I guess... thanks. Thanks for helping me, and for helping Keine out."

Again, the jewel glows bright blue, but before Rika can notice it, Reisen wraps her left arm around the shrine maid's neck, then points at her with her right hand and says "this girl is the real thing. Reliable, kind, a REALLY good friend, and cute to boot."

Rika starts to sweat as she looks down to the ground, smiling with embarrassment while saying "eh-heh-heh. Thanks."

Outside the shrine, some villagers surround the school to look at what's happening inside, then one of the elder women says "she works at the Hakurei shrine. Really, to be capable of such miracles and acts of kindness."

A young girl in modern clothes smiles and says "you said it. I think I'm going to pay more visits to that shrine."

Many of the villagers start agreeing amongst themselves, all amazed by Rika's powers, and her incredible kindness.

* * *

At the Moriya Shrine, Sanae stands on her feet as her skin shivers, then looks forward as she says "Ail, look what you caused now!"

Ail sits next to Suwako and Budou as they look into his gap, which has an overhead view of the school.

He turns around to look at Sanae's worried face and asks "what? I'm keeping my promise! I'm safe, and I didn't go after Guzman! Do not ask me to just sit here and do nothing. If I hadn't found Medicine-"

Sanae stomps her right foot on the floor and says "thanks to you helping out that maid, the villagers' faith will go straight to the Hakurei Shrine!"

Budou and Phredia, who sits on Budou's head, look back at Sanae with casual faces, then Budou asks "but isn't there an extension of this shrine over there?"

Sanae's hair suddenly stands on its ends, then she trembles as she says "but that doesn't mean... I mean..."

Suwako turns around, then casually says "look, if more people visit that shrine, me and Kanako can get their attention and get some faith from them as well."

From behind Sanae, Kanako adds "that should be easy for us to do", then places her hand on Sanae's shoulder.

Defeated, Sanae groans and slumps, then says "fine, I guess it could work out, somehow."

Budou giggles, then looks at Phredia as she says "maybe you and papa should go out and have some fun. You know, relax a little. Let me take care of big sis and gramma for a bit."

Sanae stares at Budou and smiles, then stares at Suwako and Kanako, who now sits next to Suwako, then notices the mischievous smiles on the goddesses.

She gasps and asks "what are you two up to?"

Suwako takes off her hat, and from it, she pulls two tickets for the Kappa-pa resort and says "ta-da~! We got you these tickets for three days at that resort. While you're relaxing, you can check it out and tell us how those kappa are doing."

Kanako brazenly adds "after all, I'd love it if they advanced enough to give us some power, so we can use out air conditioners and heaters again!"

Sanae and Ail both look suspiciously at the two goddesses, but quickly smile, then Ail says "well, I'm impressed. I'm game if you are, Sanae."

Sanae smiles, then squeals with excitement and says "alright then! Thank you miss Kanako and miss Suwako!"

Kanako points at Budou and Phredia, then says "actually, you should thank these two. They're the ones that managed to get these."

Budou giggles as Ail and Sanae get beside her and each gives her a kiss on each cheek, and each gives Phredia a pat on the head, both saying "thank you", at the same time, making Budou giggle and Phredia turn pink.

* * *

At the Kappa-pa resort, Guzman lies right in front of the large gates without his hat, shivering and whimpering as he tries to get back up, but inside his mind, the screaming child robs him from enough mental stability to get up.

One of the cameras spots Guzman, and almost immediately, Julia appears right next to him, adjusting her virtual glasses while staring casually at him.

Moments later, two large robots with wheels for legs, sturdy, but comfortable looking metal hands, and with red crosses painted on their chests, rush forth and grab Guzman in unison, making a stretcher right beneath him, then take him inside.

Later, while inside his room, Nitori bursts through the doors, crying and shouting "what happened? Oh no, I shouldn't have let you out on your own, you weren't ready! Please, speak to me! Guzman!"

Julia raises her hand, then calmly says "lady Nitori, he's just exhausted. Let him rest for now."

Nitori tries nudging Guzman before giving up, then looks at Julia and says "make sure he's well-taken care of!", then leaves the room while saying to herself "I'm a terrible kappa! I should have gone with him! Oh, I hope he's alright! If something happens to him, I'll never forgive myself."

After Nitori is gone, Julia stares at Guzman, then whispers "sword wounds, bruises, gunpowder... Don't think I don't know what you are. Once I have enough evidence, I'll be sure to let lady Nitori know the kind of being you truly are."

Julia's hologram disappears, and after she does, Guzman opens his eyes and thinks "without the hat, I can't confront her... DAMMIT, GUZMAN! You messed up bad! What's worse, this computer is on to you. I'll need to recover, and after I do..."

* * *

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Budou, Phredia, Kyo, Luna and Guzman were created by Willie G.R

Rika Onkamikami was created by Snapshot2010

Rika's "Gemonji Rangeki Zero" which means "Dark Art, Dark Lance Zero" skill card was created by Snapshot2010

SEP 03 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**PHEW! What a long chapter. It felt so darn good to make Guzman cry like a little girl. Still, he managed to run away again... ugh, and after what he did to Keine! Well, he got beat, thank goodness, and Keine is safe. Next few chapters will be on the lighter side. I don't know about you, but I could use some light stuff happening about, after so much dark stuff has happened. I am a strong believer in light and laughter after all. Ah well, thanks for reading and for leaving your comments/reviews, and more comments/reviews are welcome. Take care and see you next chapter.**


	7. Chapter 7

Night at the Hakurei Shrine, after the events at the Human Village, Reimu, Rika, Tenshi and Marisa are ready to call it a night.

Marisa sits on her broom, hovering beside Tenshi outside the shrine's front entrance, tipping her hat while smiling confidently and saying "see you tomorrow Reimu, and don't worry about a thing. I'll keep my eyes peeled, ze."

Reimu nods and calmly says "if you have to come back, do so. Just don't take any risks, and don't wake me up. You know where the extra futons are."

Marisa twirls on her broom as she rises to the air, and just as she rushes off, she shouts "I'll bring some sake with me too~!"

Reimu crosses her arms across her chest, watches as Marisa hastily heads home, then sighs and says "she's gonna make another party, I'm sure of it."

The word 'party' reveals Mima from under the ground , who asks "a party? Really? Now?", and Suika, who springs on her seat on the edge of the shrine's roof, and also asks "party? Can I bring sake?"

Reimu face palms and groans, but decides to ignore the girls and heads inside.

Tenshi looks at Rika from outside with worry, then asks "hey, are you sure you're alright? You don't want me to stay?"

Inside the shrine, Rika stands on the living room, staring out the building towards Tenshi with some strands of her hair wriggling across her exhausted face, her arms dangling lazily in the air, and with a tired smile she says "don't worry about a thing, Tenshi. I-we'll be just fine."

Tenshi can't hide how worried she is, but she doesn't want to offend Rika and make her think she thinks less of her, so she steps on her keystone, waves at the maid, then says "alright then. I'll be back in the morning, I promise."

Right after Tenshi lifts toward Heaven on her keystone, Reimu closes the front door of the shrine, ignoring the energetic evil spirit, and the equally energetic oni, who keep talking about partying, then heads to her room, yawning as she does.

She stops when she passes by Rika, who stands on the floor, swaying lightly all around, then says "come on, I'll take you to your room."

Rika slightly turns her exhausted face to Reimu, looking at her mistress through her unkempt hair, then says "my... my lady, I'm not... it's not night yet."

Reimu smiles as she shakes her head, then walks to Rika, reaching out to grab her shoulders and lead her to her room, but Rika drops to the floor before Reimu is able to catch her, worrying the maiden.

Reimu throws herself on her knees next to Rika, nudging the shrine maid and worriedly calling "Rika! Rika, what happened?"

Rika smacks her lips, then moans and mumbles "my lady... tea. Cloud dumplings."

Reimu sighs, calming herself down when she realizes Rika is only sleeping, so with a light smile on her face, she gets a futon and manages to place Rika on it, and after placing her as comfortably as she can, Reimu heads to her own room and says "good night Rika. Hope you feel better in the morning."

Rika giggles, and just as Reimu closes the sliding doors, she whispers "heh-heh, my lady... Tenshi brought... night peach."

* * *

Early morning, at the Forest of Magic, a gap opens right in front of Ail's house, and from it, Ail and Budou walk out and quickly make their way inside.

As Ail opens the door, Budou excitedly whispers "come on papa, hurry up!"

There is a click on the door, and immediately, Ail opens the door while whispering "calm down. After that beating, I'm sure he needs to recover too."

As they enter the house and Ail closes the door, Budou says "papa, don't start underestimating that Guzman. If you get hurt again, I'm going to get- WHOA!"

As she speaks and looks around, the mess all over the kitchen doesn't seem to sink in until after some time.

A sweat drop falls down Ail's forehead as he blinks while staring at the kitchen, then asks "who the heck did this?"

Budou quickly replies "I don't know, but if she ate my grape sundae, there's going to be hell to pay."

Ail looks down at Budou with disbelief and asks "how do you know it wasn't a 'he'?"

Budou shrugs while smiling, and in a manner-of-factly tone, she says "we're living in Gensokyo, papa."

Ail twitches after her blunt answer, but shakes it off and says "I'll go check the rooms. You stay here and check for anything that's missing."

Budou nods, and Ail quickly makes his way to the rooms, immediately turning to Budou's room, right upon entering the corridor.

He takes a quick look inside, then continues his way.

He opens the door to the bathroom but finds nothing, then turns to the right and checks the toilet room and finds it empty as well.

While he continues to his room, Budou checks their refrigerator, which is drawing power from a large pink quartz crystal connected on its back, and immediately checks for her grapes and grape sundae.

She sighs, and with a content smile she says to herself "ah, nothing's missing", disregarding the half-eaten apples, Ail's missing soft drinks, the completely empty jar of honey, as well as all the missing food from the empty containers.

As soon as she closes the fridge's door, she can hear Ail scream out loud, accompanied by repeated thumping sounds.

Budou quickly rushes to Ail's room, shouting "papa! Papa, I'm coming!"

Budou tackles the door open and while clenching her eyes shut, she shoots lasers all over the room while shouting "leave my papa along you big bully!"

Ail grunts, and after more thumping sounds, he shouts "Budou! Budou, hurry! Get her off ME!"

Budou opens her eyes and looks down to find Ail on the floor, trapped by the somber-looking Lily White, who applies a perfect figure four leg lock and bends her body back as far as she can, causing his foot to make a cracking sound, making Ail cry while clenching his teeth, opening his eyes wide, and smacking the floor to his left with his hand, making continuous loud thumps.

Budou sighs, calming down after seeing it's not Guzman, then calmly says "come on miss Lily, let him go."

Without even thinking about it, Lily releases Ail and rolls backward on to her feet, then rushes to Budou and gives her a hug, almost knocking her down.

Moments later, Ail, Budou and the somber Lily are in the living room, Budou sitting beside Lily on the couch, while Ail sits on the chair in front of them out of fear of another attack, then asks "so all that just cuz' you were hungry?"

Budou nods and says "she says she needs to eat as much as she can before winter comes."

Ail sighs and says "well, she already ate everything in the house. I guess I better buy more. Wait here while I get more fruits and tofu- OOF!"

Just as Ail stands up, Lily tackles him to the ground and pinches his chest, then starts twisting his shirt.

Ail screams so loud, the living room window trembles, then he screams "purple nirpple~!"

Budou sighs and face palms, then calmly says "Lily, calm down. I'll tell him."

Lily flaps her regular-looking wings and flies back to the couch, then lets herself drop next to Budou, while Ail gets up from the ground rubbing his chest and asks "te-tell me what?"

Budou smiles and says "she wants honey."

With tears in his eyes, Ail places his face next to Lily's somber face and shouts "you could have just said so, dammit!"

Budou smiles and says "she did. I just hadn't told you yet."

Ail looks at Budou with surprise, but simply whimpers, then opens a gap straight to the Human Village.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Youkai Forest, Hatate wakes up in a futon inside her room and sits up, her hair let lose, wearing a small white shirt and her bloomers.

She blinks twice, trying to shake off the heavy feeling in her eyes, then remember recent events.

She remembers flying after Ail, Sanae and the goddesses of the shrine on the mountain, but getting cut off by one of Aya's attack, then responding in suit with some danmaku of her own.

She remembers spotting Aya interviewing the two goddesses of autumn and swooping down with a powerful kick on Aya's back and continuing the interview herself, only to end up inside one of Aya's tornadoes.

Then remembers their latest fight right above the Human Village, grappling in the sky and fighting over who gets to cover the incident there.

That's when Hatate stops thinking and sighs, then says to herself "you idiot, you didn't help Rika-san, just to get in Aya's way again."

She remembers, over and over, how Rika got shot from a spot she couldn't see, yet all she did was fight with Aya over the cover of the story, and in the end, their blundering only ends up aiding Momiji's own newspaper.

Hatate fully wakes up with a determined look on her face, standing up and raising her fist to the window and saying "I swear, I'll stop this useless fighting and get to work IMMEDIATELY! First, I'll go and visit Rika-san, make sure she's ok, then is BACK to work!"

Later that morning, at the Hakurei Shrine, Hatate finds herself pressing her angry face against Tenshi's, whispering through her teeth "well, if Rika-nee-san is ill, then I should go IN there and nurse her back to HEALTH!"

Tenshi, though smiling, whispers through her teeth, sounding equally angry "no, there's no way I'm letting you near Rika, you twin-tailed pillow stuffer!"

Unaware by either, Parsee peeks her head from a nearby bush, grinning wickedly while staring at the girls with glowing green eyes, then snickers as she slowly hides again.

The sliding doors to the shrine open up, and Reimu now stands at the entrance, glaring at the two girls.

She points at Rika, who is still sleeping soundly on the floor of the living room and angrily whispers "Rika is EXHAUSTED, you idiots! Either you keep it down, or seal your mouths shut!"

Tenshi and Hatate are ready to complain, but they quickly notice the worry in Reimu's eyes and decide to simply lower their heads and apologize at the same time.

Reimu sighs, then says "come on, just let her rest and... EH? How the heck did you get in here?"

When Reimu turns around to look at Rika again, she finds Shinki kneeling next to her, placing a wet towel, offered by Yumeko, on Rika's forehead, whispering "there, I bet this feels good, doesn't it?"

Rika whispers back "yes, thank you."

Reimu, Hatate and Tenshi suddenly rush toward Shinki and angrily ask at the same time "what the hell do you think you're doing?"

Without their knowledge, Parsee stands behind the three girls with a grin on her face, waving her arms around their backs and pouring jealousy over them.

Shinki smiles and pats Rika's hands, then says "just a moment dear, things are getting a little noisy. Yumeko, take care of miss Rika for me."

Shinki slowly stands up and turns to face the three girls with a straight and stern face, then softly, yet angrily, says "I can't believe you! All of you, miss Reimu. That poor girl was burning up, and you're all just bickering? Honestly, I have a good mind to spank you all right here and now!"

All three girls seem to shrink down to the size of cats, while Parsee jumps to the ceiling to hide, then they all look down and start rubbing their feet on the floor.

Reimu sniffles, then says "sowwy miss Shinki", but suddenly shakes her head, recovering her normal size, then angrily asks "hey! How was I supposed to know she got a fever?"

Shinki grabs Reimu's cheeks and starts puling her face apart while angrily saying "well, for once, you could wake up early, and instead of fighting with the pests, why not check on RIKA!"

Reimu grabs Shinki's face and does the same, both girls now trying to rip their faces in half, then Reimu replies "I WAS trying to keep things quiet, you fossilized goddess!"

Shinki gasps and says "fossilized? Why you hairy-armpit miko, you'll pay for that!"

Very suddenly, both girls are seeing starts, and before they know it, they are all kneeling in a row along with Tenshi and Hatate, looking down with tears under their eyes while Yumeko scolds them fiercely.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at Ail's house, Ail returns via-gap to the living room with a basket full of fruits, vegetable, some tofu, and one large jar of honey on his other hand.

With a smile on his face, he calls "Budou~, Lily~, I'm back, and I brought the honey."

He walks to the kitchen and places the jar on the table, then turns around to place the vegetable on the counter, while a small pair of hands grab the jar of honey and take it away.

While this happens, Budou replies "ah, welcome back papa~! I'll be there in a bit. Seems Lily made a nest here. Phredia seems to like it too."

Ail straightens up and thinks for a moment, then asks "what do you mean?"

At Budou's room, the little bat youkai stares at the room's closet, looking at a large arranged patch of hay, twigs and dried leaves, placed together to make one large nest, where Phredia is contently spreading her arms and legs on, then says "well, it looks like a nest, so it has to be a nest."

Back at the kitchen, Ail finishes stocking the fridge, and after closing it and looking for the jar of honey, he realizes it's gone.

With curiosity in his face, he checks the floor around the table, thinking it might have fallen, then notices Lily eating the honey with her bare hands while sitting on the living room's floor.

He sighs and face palms, then walks next to Lily, offers her a spoon, then says "please, use this. You're gonna make a mess if you keep doing that."

Silently, the somber fairy stares at the spoon and slowly accepts it, then Ail smiles at her, pats her head, then walks toward the kitchen.

Before he reaches the kitchen, the spoon flies to the back of his head, but he manages to turn around and catch it with his right hand, his bracelet glowing orange along with Shou's tiger symbol on it.

He looks at his hand with curiosity, then realizes he's holding the spoon, then looks at Lily and asks "I WAS going to ask you if you wanted something else, but with that attitude..."

Lily completely ignores him and turns the jar upside down, consuming its content as though it were water, and after the last gulp, she peeks inside of it, turns it over, sticks her face in the jar, then pulls it out and sighs.

Ail sighs and says "well, that should do- WHOA~!"

Budou walks out of her room after hearing Ail's scream, asking "papa, what's the...? Oh..."

Lily sits on Ail's back, crossing his arms behind himself while pulling on his chin, making him cry as she threatens to rip him in half, and putting him through so much pain, his face turns blue and he can't find the strength to scream.

Budou sighs and shakes her head, then asks "you only bought one?"

With tears under her eyes, Ail manages to groan and grunt "wh-what do you mean?"

Budou clears her throat, and now wears a large lab coat twice her own size, a pair of crescent glasses with golden frames, has Phredia sitting on her head and crossing her legs, and points to a blackboard to her left with a stick.

While staring at Ail and Lily, she says "you see, Lily needs to eat abnormal amounts of food before winter so she can hibernate. The reason for this is when spring comes, she can have enough energy in her to actually bring spring. So, until she's satisfied, she won't stop attacking us, seeing as we, by trying to do her a favor, have locked her away from nature, thus limiting her usual feeding patterns."

Ail and Lily now sit on desks, paying great attention to Budou, then Ail raises his hand and says "but sensei, first of all, she's not attacking YOU at all, and second, she could have left whenever she wanted."

Budou clears her throat and pulls on a rope to her right, then a large silver washtub with the word "idiot" falls on Ail's head.

After the loud clang, Budou clears her throat again, then says "and thus, she has gone out and picked up the materials to make her nest, but there's no food for her to collect at this time, so it's up to us to care for her now."

Ail moans as his eyes spin and the bump on his head pulsates, then says "fine~ I'll get more honey... uuu~"

Budou smiles, then says "I suggest you get about eight jars."

Ail gasps and exclaims "EIGHT JARS?"

* * *

Back at the Hakurei Shrine, Hatate and Tenshi sulk on the shrine's porch while a miniature Parsee seems to fly all over them, smiling wickedly and pointing her hands at them.

Hatate sighs, then mumbles "I wanted to give her the bath."

Tenshi seems to catch fire when she stands up and grabs Hatate by the collar of her shirt, lifts her up, then shouts "no way in heaven I'll let you give Rika a bath! That is MY task! I am her friend!"

Hatate catches fire and grabs Tenshi by the collar of her shirt and shouts "Rika's my friend, you usurper! She's MINE!"

Hatate presses her face against Tenshi's and shouts "die~!", but both girls can only see stars flickering in front of their faces, and before long find themselves lying on the ground next to the shrine.

Reimu stands on the porch with her steaming gohei on hand, then looks to her left and smacks the tiny Parsee, sending her flying away to the trees, then says "no fighting! Hatate, Rika wishes to see you. Tenshi, you bring some peaches! I'm making Rika a peach pie!"

Tenshi presents Reimu with five large peaches on her hands, then Reimu smiles and says "good, good, now go into the kitchen and slice them for me, will you?"

Tenshi salutes Reimu, then says "immediately ma'am. Although, I really don't know how to do that."

Hatate gets up from the ground rubbing the bump on the back of her head, then ask "Ri-Rika wants to see me?"

Reimu holds Tenshi by her shoulder and says "wait for me", then looks at Hatate and says "yes, but before you go, tell me, where is Aya? I need to ask her something too?"

Hatate stares at Reimu and asks herself "too?", but ignores it and shakes her head, then says "I haven't seen that hag since yesterday!"

Somewhere in the skies of Gensokyo, Aya screams out loud while holding her chest, and after recovering, she growls and says "she went and called me a HAG! I'm gonna rip off her tail feathers when I see that shut-in!"

Back at the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu nods and signals Hatate to head inside, then says "very well. Now, come with me, celestial. You're learning how to slice peaches correctly."

Tenshi moans and says "aww, but I wanna see Rika too."

Hatate enters Rika's room just before Shinki and Yumeko leave, then kneels in front of Rika.

The shrine maid sits in the middle of the room on a cushion, with a tired smile on her face, wearing a white robe that covers her wings, forcing her to keep them closed up.

Hatate smiles and says "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you before."

Rika smiles and replies "oh, it's alright, you didn't bother me at all. Actually, I remembered that I never thanked you properly for nursing me back to health last time, so..."

Hatate waves her arms toward Rika, seemingly in a panic, and says "n-no, no, it's alright! You owe me nothing, nee-san!"

Rika smiles and extends her hand at Hatate, then asks "may I see your camera?"

Though she's a bit confused, Hatate doesn't hesitate to show Rika her camera.

Rika grabs the camera, then quickly gets up and rushes to her closet, rummages for a moment, the comes back with a strange hammer, a clear crystal, and what looks like a very advanced computer chip.

Hatate opens her mouth to ask what is Rika planning to do, but the shrine maid drops on her knees on the cushion and quickly points the hammer's head between the camera and the small items.

At first, Hatate thinks she's going to break the camera, but calms down when she sees all items start to glow and merge into one.

When the light dims, Rika quickly returns Hatate her camera, then says "I enhanced the lens so you'll get clearer pictures, even when moving at those insane speeds of yours. I also expanded its memory, so you can take even more pictures now, and your spirit photography should work a little faster."

Rika allows Hatate a few moments to absorb what she said, and when she notices Hatate is ready to jump-hug her, she raises her hand and says "now, I need to ask you. Miss Hatate, have you, or Aya found anything about that Guzman?"

Shame rapidly courses through Hatate's heart, and quickly becomes evident in her eyes.

She backs away from Rika and looks away, remembering her childish fights with Aya over who gets to cover the reports first, then crosses her arms across her body to hug herself while shaking her head rapidly.

Rika frowns, then places her hand on her right eye and sighs, then says "miss Reimu was right. You two have only been fighting this whole time, haven't you? Hatate, I'm very disappointed."

Hatate opens her eyes wide and her body seems to straighten up on its own after hearing those words, then she looks straight at Rika.

The shrine maid doesn't seem angry, but stares back with concern as she says "really, there is a very dangerous... being out there, someone we know nothing of, and you two are fighting amongst yourselves when you should be working together to uncover his secrets. I mean, you've seen what he's done, all those gadgets he possesses, what he did to miss Reimu, to miss Byakuren... to miss Keine, and right in front of her students."

A tear escapes Hatate's right eye as she manages to speak with a cracked voice, saying "I'm... I'm sorry. I just wanted to help."

Before she knows it, Hatate finds herself being embrace tightly by Rika, who says "don't cry now. Just, please, stop that fighting and try to find out something about him. We have to stop that monster before he attacks again. What if he attacks you, or miss Aya? What if he kills someone? Please, miss Hatate, we really need your help."

Moments later, Hatate exits the room with a gloomy face, her eyes hiding under a thick shadow as she walks straight outside.

From the kitchen, Reimu asks "wait, don't you want some peach pie?"

Hatate raises her head and fakes a bright smile as she says "sorry, no-can-do. I have... something important to tend to."

Without waiting for a reply, Hatate turns her face around before they can see her tears escape her eyes, then flies away with haste.

Shinki is already taking a bite off her piece while Yumeko stares at Hatate with curiosity, then says "well, that was a bit rude, don't you think, miss Reimu?"

Reimu smiles and says "it must be something of great importance Yumeko. Trust me, she'd never refuse food unless it was."

From the floor, Tenshi cries "how long are you going to use me as a rug?"

Reimu smiles and replies "until you learn a sword is not a cooking utensil!"

Tenshi whines while Shinki, Yumeko and Reimu giggle amongst themselves.

* * *

Later, after lunch, Ail goes to his room, walking past Lily, who is eating her fifth jar of honey already, gulping down its contents like there is no tomorrow, and decides to take a well-earned nap.

He lies on his new bed and closes his eyes, then springs up, feeling as though he slept for just five minutes.

Feeling a little disoriented, he looks to his door with suspicion and says "something doesn't feel right here."

There are a couple of soft knocks on his door, followed by Budou's nervous voice, asking "papa, are you awake?"

Worried, Ail gets off his bed and heads toward the door, asking "Budou, sweetie, is everything alright?"

Before he can reach the door, it bursts open with Budou standing next to Lily, who holds a comb against the bat youkai's throat.

Budou trembles before whimpering "sh-she's out of honey, papa."

Ail looks furiously at Lily, but after Budou says those words, he looks with shock and asks "wait, you ate three jars of honey in five minutes?"

Both the somber Lily and Budou look at each other in surprise, then Budou looks to Ail and says "papa, you've been asleep for an hour. I stopped HER from entering before, and ended up like this."

Ail stares at the girls for a moment, while what Budou just said sinks in, then shakes his head and smiles ominously at Lily before saying "Lily, you bend a single strand of her hair, and I'm going to use my best spell card on you until all that's left of you is a speck of ash... you understand?"

Lily's somber eyes quickly open up when she realizes Ail's threat isn't an empty one, then quickly raises her arms and releases Budou, who stares back at her with annoyance, then takes three steps away from the door, where Phredia is waiting for her.

Ail smiles more naturally now and says "good girl. Now, what is it you wa-AAANT?"

Before he can react, Lily jumps from the door and wraps her tiny arm around Ail's neck until it cracks.

Ail grunts, then manages to say "ack, fine! I'll get more honey!"

Lily releases him and heads back to the living room with those somber eyes, while Ail rubs his neck, sighs, then says "jeez, who knew a fairy would be this much trouble."

Budou now sits on Ail's bed with Phredia on her lap, looking out the window while saying "well, you did make her wait for you to return, you know."

Ail sighs in defeat, opens a gap to the Human Village's market, then says "I'll be back in a bit."

Budou smiles concernedly and says "don't worry papa, she should be going back to sleep soon."

Ail looks at Budou and smiles before entering his gap, then Budou smiles back, giggles, and after Ail leaves, she decided to rest on his bed while she waits for him, placing Phredia on her chest as she lies back.

* * *

At the Hakurei Shrine, Aya sits in the middle of the living room, while Reimu stands in front of her and stares sternly while crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Aya glares back at Reimu and shouts "she's the one getting in my way! I have to defend myself, for the sake of the Bunbunmaru!"

Reimu suddenly spreads her arms apart and shouts, her voice sounding almost like thunder as she replies "that bastard has been doing as he PLEASES all over the place, and you... the ONLY thing I asked you to do was try and get information on HIM, not compete with Hatate!"

From the small table behind Reimu, Rika, who sits between Shinki and Yumeko, nods and sighs, then says "miss Aya, I already had a word with miss Hatate. From now on there should be no reason for you two to be fighting. Just-"

Reimu cuts Rika off, raising her hand at her maid, then says "stop this stupid little squabble of yours and get on with it! Geez, I really can't believe this from YOU, of all people, Aya! Aren't you supposed to be the fastest reporter in all Gensokyo?"

Aya's cheeks turn red as she clenches her teeth and continues glaring at Reimu, then manages to say "if you think it's so easy, then YOU do the reporting!"

Reimu already has Aya's camera on her hand, turning it around while examining it with interest, then says "hmm, now that you mention it, I think you're right. I'd make a better reporter than YOU. I'm even faster than you, and you know it."

Aya growls, her cheeks turning even redder, clenching her teeth so tightly, she feels as though they're about to break, then shouts "give me back my camera, Hakurei!"

Reimu is shocked, staring at Aya with a bit of fright, then sighs, recovers her usual face, then tosses the camera back, shrugging and saying "whatever. I guess we can count on Hatate anyway."

Rika stares at Reimu for a moment, then, as if remembering something, she gasps and says "oh yes, miss Hatate did say she was going to do her very best from now on."

Aya inspects her camera thoroughly and calms down a bit, but after Rika's comment, she get angry again, gets up and reveals her wings, unable to control herself and hide them, then storms out of the shrine, saying "I don't need this crap!"

Reimu turns her casual face at the tengu and asks "where are you going? You're not going to bother Hatate now, are you? You know what I must do if you do that, right?"

Aya stands on the front entrance and slides open the door as hard as she can without breaking it, turns her face at Reimu, lets out a quick humph, then flies away so fast, her wings bend down, while many feathers fall off her.

A moment after she's gone, Reimu can't hold her laughter, progressing from a chortle, to a hearty laugh.

Rika and Shinki stare at Reimu with their mouths wide open, unable to believe what they are seeing, then Yumeko lets out a chuckle and says "nice work, miss Reimu."

Shinki turns to Yumeko and says "Yumeko, I can't believe you. That poor girl was so angry."

Reimu stops laughing wiping a tear from under her left eye with her finger, then says "don't worry about her. She should be cooling down very soon, and when she does, if all goes according to plan, we'll be getting results from both birds very soon."

Rika sighs and says "but I feel so bad. Miss Aya's face... poor thing."

Reimu chuckles and says "don't worry about it, Rika. You'll see. She'll be just fine."

Reimu stares at Rika's worried face, then face palms and says "look, why don't I make dinner today? You just take it easy today."

Rika stands up and exclaims "what kind of maid I would be if I allowed that, my lady! I'll take care of... uuu~"

Before she can finish, Rika's eyes start spinning, and Rika falls right on Shinki's welcoming lap, and with a soothing tone of voice, while combing Rika's hair with her fingers, Shinki says "that's a good girl. You just rest, and let us handle the work around here."

Yumeko stares at Shinki and Rika, and something in her heart seems to feel uncomfortable, yet she can't tell what it is and simply says "m-maybe it would be best to take miss Rika to her bed?"

Parsee peeks her head from the ceiling, smiling while staring at Yumeko, while Shinki smiles and replies "excellent idea. Please, give me a hand Yumeko, sweetie."

From outside, Tenshi shouts "hey, what's going on down there? Can I come in yet?"

Reimu shouts back "did you fix that hole on the roof?"

Suika replies for Tenshi, saying "she's been sleeping this whole time."

Tenshi shouts back "you horned songbird!"

Suika laughs, then says "better get to work, miss lazy celestial."

Tenshi screams, and from inside, they can hear the two of them running around the roof, while Suika giggles.

Reimu face palms, sighs, then says "this just keeps getting better each day."

* * *

An hour later, somewhere at the Youkai Forest, Aya swings her fan around, creating miniature tornadoes that that scatter the many fallen autumn leaves all over her surrounding area, getting some fairies caught in them as well, yet not caring about them.

She looks forward, staring at a large tree, then readies to use a spell card against it, but a girl shouts from behind "got you!", making her turn around and swing her fan with force, creating a human-sized tornado.

The girl behind her screams and Aya smiles with satisfaction, yet her smile vanishes when she realizes she attacks Shizuha, who spins against her will in the air, unable to escape the tornado.

Minoriko peeks her head from behind a rock and shouts "please, let nee-san go!"

Aya sighs and swings her fan again, releasing Shizuha from her tornado by causing another tornado, then says "sorry, I thought you were someone else."

Almost at the same time, Shizuha springs on her feet and bows several times and nervously says "sorry, I thought you were someone else!"

Aya and Shizuha stare at each other for a moment, then smile and start to laugh.

Minoriko stares at the two girls with confusion, thinking "what just happened here?"

Moments later, Aya, Shizuha and Minoriko are sinking their feet into the river, while Shizuha explains herself.

Shizuha sighs, then says "to have my body destroyed so easily by a human. It felt very humiliating. I decided, for as long as I can, I'll try to hunt that man down and do my best to bring him down."

Shizuha looks at the water, clenches her hand, then says "I admit it, I am not strong, and come winter, sis and I will be even weaker. But I don't care! I want that man to pay for what he did."

Minoriko immediately adds "but more importantly, nee-san wants him as far away from the village as she can."

Shizuha calls Minoriko's attention, and while the sisters argue, Aya's conscience bites her.

If she had just stopped her foolish fighting, she could have helped stop that man from ever reaching the village.

She feels even worse when she remembers stopping Hatate from chasing after Guzman the day he attacked Byakuren, all because she wanted to do it herself, and eventually losing him from their sight.

After a long sigh, Aya says "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but he's already attacked the village yesterday."

The young goddesses stare at Aya with surprise, then lower their heads after a quick whine.

Shizuha suddenly takes her feet off the water and with determination in her face, she says "let's go to the village, Minoriko."

Minoriko looks up at her sister, questions suddenly running through her mind, the Shizuha says "we failed again and let that... thing into the village! The least we can do now is stay close in case they need us!"

Minoriko continues to stare and asks "but nee-san, what if they don't want us there?"

Shizuha smiles while offering a hand to her sister, then says "you're the goddess of plentiful harvests, of COURSE they'll want you there. I'll just tag along and make sure to give you a hand if that creep shows his face over there."

Aya watches as Minoriko accepts her sister's hand and get up, then asks "you're willing to fight that human, knowing he bested even the Hakurei Maiden? Not just her, but the village's teacher, that brute, Kyo, and has Ail hiding?"

Shizuha nods, then says "what kind of goddess would we be if we didn't try to help, right?"

Aya thinks for a moment, looking into the water, thinking "what the hell's wrong with me? These girls are willing to help fight off that man, even risk themselves to help, and all I've been thinking is about my newspaper..."

Shizuha and Minoriko lift to the sky after saying their goodbyes, but Aya stops them and asks "can I come with you?"

The sisters stare at Aya for a moment, smile, then nod and extend a welcoming hand each.

As they leave, Hina watches from behind a bush and says "and yet another misfortune has been dealt with. Ah, I swear, I was born for this."

* * *

Late noon at Ail's house.

Ail is preparing a small luggage, stuffing some clothes in, as well as some sandals and what looks like a very thin camera.

From her room, Budou loudly says "papa~! Don't go taking peep photos~!"

Ail looks at the closed door, then asks himself "man, do I really look like that much of a pervert?"

There is a loud thud on the door, so Ail says "come on in", but nobody comes.

Ail stares suspiciously at the door and asks "Budou? Lily? Is that you?"

He slowly gets closer to the door, feeling nervous, thinking someone, or something might have gotten in the house.

He prepares himself and activates Suwako's blessing on his bracelet as he calls "Lily, I already told you, I got you the last five jars. There is no more!"

There is another loud thud, and Ail thinks something is very wrong.

He stands next to the door and readies himself to open it and storm out, and after mentally counting to three, he opens the door and rushes outside.

He slips on an oil stain, skids on the clean floor, flips in the air, falls on his back, bounces off a lose board, flies through a sack of flour, and finally falls on his face on the silver washtub with the word "idiot" written on it, on the living room's floor.

Budou rushes out of her room, and exclaims "papa, what's all that... oh my!"

Ail is covered in flour, and is using every ounce of strength in his aching body to get his face off the washtub, which now has a perfect impression of his face on it.

Budou exclaims "Lily, what's the meaning of this?"

Ail manages to sit, rub his red face, then says "uu~, that really hurt."

Lily now stands in front of him holding up an empty jar of honey, then yawns and says "just one more."

Ail blinks twice, a vein pulsates on his forehead, then he points at Lily and shouts "you monstrous menace, there IS no more HONEY! I already told you, I bought the very last five already!"

Lily grabs Ail's finger, stares at him with that somber face, yawns, then lifts him above her head and slams him head-first against the floor.

Budou gasps and calls "papa! Are you alright?"

Ail manages to fall sitting on the floor again, then sighs and says "FINE, I'll hunt for it! I swear, you can be a real-"

Lily's hand glow pink, and a cherry tree leaf made of energy appears on the palm of her hand.

She gives it to Ail and says "bees won't sting. Get the honey and I can go to sleep."

Ail stares at the magic leaf for a moment, and can't help but smile, pats Lily on the head, then says "fine... There should be some bees nests around the village."

Budou quickly asks "want me to come?"

Ail shakes his head and says "you get your things ready and I'll be back soon. And Lily, don't you dare hurt her."

Lily blinks twice, bows, then says "please, get the honey", then yawns and walks into Budou's room.

* * *

Meanwhile, above the Human Village, Hatate zips from one end of the village to another, hoping to find something that might lead her to Guzman.

She goes to Keine's school, Kyo's house, Maribel and Renko's house, the north, west and east exits of the village, and now, she heads to the south exit, the last place to check.

She lands near the two houses where Rika last fought with Guzman and begins to investigate the area.

Meanwhile, Aya and the Aki sisters fly by the area and notice Hatate rummaging around the houses, so they decide to fly down and ask what she is doing.

Minoriko is just about to greet Hatate, but Aya beats her by storming to the tengu and angrily saying "so, you're trying to make me look bad, huh?"

Hatate raises her head to Aya, glares, then ignores her and continues looking under one of the house's porches.

A vein pulsates on Aya's forehead, and without warning, she bends down and places Hatate in a headlock, saying "you called me a hag earlier. Not only that, but you made me look REAL bad in Reimu's eyes. Tell me, are you trying to piss me off, ignoring me like that and playing the good little detective?"

Hatate grunts, trying to speak, but Aya tightens her grip, while Minoriko and Shizuha try to pull them apart, Shizuha shouting "no, miss Aya! This isn't helping."

From the road, they hear a woman speaking loudly, saying "what in blazes is going on here? That's enough already!"

Aya thinks it's Reimu, and almost immediately releases Hatate and bows down, saying "ack, sorry, sorry, I was... er, just... aligning her back!"

Hatate coughs for a while before finally saying "you lying hag! You were trying to kill me!"

Aya glares at Hatate and replies "and you called me a hag again! I'm REALLY gonna kill you now!"

A fireball explodes next to the tengu, while Minoriko and Shizuha stand in front of two people, Shizuha saying "so I was wondering if you needed some help."

Aya and Hatate lift their heads again and realize the one speaking is actually Keine, the history teacher, and next to her is Mokou, who glares at the tengu with a fireball ready in her left hand, placing her right in her pocket and saying "go ahead, try that again. We'll be having two steaming plates of roasted chicken!"

The image of being cooked and served with rice and soup frightens the tengu so much, they seem to shrink in size as they bow down, begging for forgiveness.

Mokou looks at Keine with a smirk on her face, then says "fine, I won't cook you... yet."

Keine pats Shizuha's head, smiles, then says "let's work together to bring down that monster", then walks toward the tengu and says "all of us. That man is very dangerous, and to work alone now will mean certain death."

Hatate springs to her feet, then says "I WAS going to offer working together with HER, but she attacked me before I could say anything."

Aya springs on her feet and shouts "you just glared at me, twin-tail!"

Suddenly, Aya and Hatate are flailing their hands at each other while pulling their faces away, making Mokou chuckle and say "heh, what sissies."

Keine suddenly yelps and quickly falls to the ground, shocking the two tengu to stop fighting, and whose faces turn blue at the sight.

Mokou runs straight at Keine and lifts her up, and after making sure the trembling teacher is alright, she looks up at the tengu and says "you see this? That man used a new poison on her, and even after being cured, she still suffers from moments of paralysis. Not just that, he beat Kyo, his girlfriend, AND the two strangers from the outside world, and they also had weapons from out there."

Keine manages to recover, though she isn't able to get back up, so she uses all her will to lift her head, smile, and say "even one such as he... must have a weakness. Miss... Aya... and miss... Hatate. Think... think you can find one for us?"

Aya and Hatate look at each other, slowly narrowing their eyes, but before either speaks, a group of children call for Keine, worried their teacher is ill.

Keine manages to giggle and sit on her own, then says "I'm fine."

Shizuha gasps when she notices one of the children is wearing Guzman's hat, though it's light-blue in color, then points at it and asks "hey, child, where did you get that hat?"

Everyone stares at the child, who takes off the hat, which immediately turns white, then says "I 'unno. I found it by my house, and I thought it was cool, so I kept it."

Mokou gasps and says "yes, that's Guzman's hat! There's no mistake! Look, there's Rika's sword cut on its top."

The children all scream after the child throws the hat in the air, then back away from it after it falls.

Without realizing it, Aya and Hatate walk to it and pick it up at the same time.

At first, they ready themselves to fight for it, but when they looks at Shizuha, Minoriko, Mokou, and the grounded Keine, who is still trembling, they relax and loosen their grip on it.

With help from Mokou, Keine stands up and asks "what will you do? Will you help aid us against that man, or fight amongst yourselves over pride and glory?"

Aya and Hatate stare at each other, while everyone in the area stare at them, all waiting to hear their response.

* * *

At night, Ail finds himself unable to find a bee's nest, so he is about to give up and go home when he hears some light buzzing coming from a tree that sits just in front of the Myouren Temple's courtyard.

He walks over to the tree and smiles when he spots a large bee's nest, then immediately opens the empty jar and flies over the nest, presenting the bees with the magical leaf.

Immediately, the bees in the nest swarm above Ail's head, frightening him for a moment, then all head to the jar of honey, and in a manner of minutes, they fill it to the brim and head back into their nest.

Impressed, Ail says "so that's how she does it. Sweet."

He turns his head and notices Byakuren on the temple's stairs, so he decides to pay a visit before going back home.

Shou exits the temple with a mug of iced tea and offers it to Byakuren, saying "here you go lady Hijiri. I hope you like it."

Byakuren bows and replies "of course I will", then takes a sip.

From below, Ail says "Shou, Byakuren, how are you?"

The moment Byakuren hears Ail's voice, she spits the tea in her mouth, lets her mug drop on the floor, then quickly turns around with a frightened smile and says "he-hello... um... Ail. Yeah, hi."

Ail smiles and gets closer, saying "I was in the area and thought I'd come visit. You know, to see how is everyone."

As Ail gets closer, Byakuren gets farther away, smiling and trying to seem friendly while backing away behind Shou.

She tries to calm herself, yet her heart races, the memory of the recent attack to her haunting her mind.

Ail stops walking when he's just about to take the first step up, and trying to hide the awkward feeling, he asks "i-is something wrong lady Hijiri?"

Shou steps in front of Byakuren and says "Ail, I don't mean to be rude, but I believe it's best if you-"

Ail gulps and nods, his eyes hiding under a dark shadow as he says "yes, I think you are right."

He immediately turns around, trying his best to hide the pain he is feeling in his heart, then says "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

Byakuren cuts him off, and almost crying she manages to say "Ail I'm sorry. It's just... I don't know, I'm just..."

Shou continues for Byakuren, saying "you understand, don't you, mister Ail?"

Ail manages to turn around with a wide smile on his face, even though he feels as though his heart is full of lead and all he wants to do is get away, then says "it's alright. I understand. I'm really sorry for what happened, and... I hope we are able to take this monster down soon... for the sake of all our peace of mind."

After saying that, Ail opens a gap and quickly goes inside it, doing his best to keep his smiling at the girls.

After he leaves, Byakuren sobs and repeats "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to..."

She finally drops on her knees and cries and repeats "what have I done? What have I done?"

Shou kneels beside Byakuren for support, whispering "he understands. It's alright lady Hijiri... he understands."

* * *

Back at Ail's house, Ail walks out of his gap and immediately is greeted by Budou, who gives him a tight hug and says "welcome back papa! Huh? Papa?"

When she looks up to his face, she notices the gloom in his eyes and gasps.

Ail fakes a smile for her sake and says "it took some doing, but I found the honey!"

Lily flies from Budou's room, accompanied by Phredia, and heads straight to Ail, looks into his eyes with her own somber eyes, takes the honey from his hands, then gives him a kiss on the nose and flies back with Phredia to Budou's room.

Budou wants to ask Ail what happened, but Ail quickly says with a slightly cracking voice "I'm going to my room now. I'm feeling... very tired. It really was a very trying day."

Ail slowly makes his way to his room, while Budou stares back with great concern.

A few minutes later, Budou presses her ears near Ail's door and listens as he speaks to Sanae through a gap.

Ail sniffles, then says "no, she doesn't. Thanks to that... that man, she just doesn't trust me. I mean, I understand, but..."

Sanae replies "calm down Ail. Look, once that man is out of here, things can go back to normal. It might take some time, but you'll see. They will all trust you again."

Ail replies "thank you Sanae. I just hope Byakuren comes back. You know she's a very good friend of mine."

Budou pulls her ear away from the door, then quietly makes her way back to her room, where Lily has curled up inside her nest and resumed her rest after finishing the very last jar of honey.

The next morning, at the Myouren Temple, Nazrin, who looks very annoyed, and Kogasa, who looks as happy as ever, make their way to the village to buy supplies, but before they are gone, Shou shouts "and don't forget the cheese! Oh, and don't eat it before you get here, please Naz."

Nazrin grumbles after narrowing her already narrowed eyes even more, while Kogasa tries to cheer her up.

Byakuren exits the shrine and stretches under the beams of the sun, then says "good morning Shou."

Before Shou is able to reply, Budou drops from the sky and lands on her feet right in front of the steps to the entrance, points at Byakuren while glaring at her, then says "you! I need to have a word with you!"

Budou stands on the ground, placing her left foot on the first step to the temple and expanding her wings, while pointing and glaring at Byakuren and Shou, while said girls stare back at the little bat youkai with great curiosity.

* * *

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Budou, Phredia, Kyo and Guzman were created by Willie G.R.

Rika Onkamikami was created by Snapshot 2010

SEP 11 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Well, though it's a lighter chapter, it is clear Guzman has left a trail of damages behind. I hope to write more and post faster. Anyway, there are more light chapters ahead, so do enjoy them.**


	8. Chapter 8

Early morning at the Hakurei Shrine.

Rika has recovered quite well, and is training with her ice and fire swords at the back of the shrine, leaving a few, small spots of the ground covered in fire or ice.

She stops, sheathes her swords, then enters the golden gate to her right, and after exiting without the extra swords, the gate closes up, ending her training.

With a smile on her face, she takes her Oath Keeper card, then walks to the shrine to look for a broom, but she is met with a surprise on the way.

Aya and Hatate stand on her way, wrapping an arm around each other, while smiling and greeting Rika at the same time.

Rika raises her right hand, staring at the tengu with confusion, then waves and says "er, go... good morning. Umm, is... what...? Alright, what's going on?"

Aya and Hatate look at each other, laugh, then look back at Rika, then Aya says "we have decided, for the good of all, to join our efforts against the evil Guzman!"

Aya releases Hatate, clenches her hands into fists, and raises her right fist, saying "we are... the Tengu Investigation Team!"

Hatate peeks her head in front of Aya and winks as she says "you can call us **** for short!"

Aya gasps, her entire body stiffens, even her wings spring up after the surprise, then rips off a few of her own wing feathers and stuffs Hatate's mouth with them while holding her in a headlock, shouting "don't abbreviate it!"

Hatate manages to break free of the headlock and grabs Aya's hand, then spits out some feathers before shouting "I'm sorry, I just forgot, dammit!"

Aya frees her hands and starts flinging them at Hatate while pulling her face away, then Hatate does the exact same thing, both arguing at the same time, making Rika feel a bit dizzy after trying to follow their rapid argument.

The shrine's back door violently slides open, and from inside, a pair of yin yang orbs fly straight toward the tengu, making them stop their little fight to try and run away to no avail, getting struck hard on the head and knocked to the ground by the orbs.

Rika sighs and whispers "they woke my lady up", then raises her head to smile at Reimu and say "good morning miss Reimu! Hope you had a pleasant sleep."

Reimu rubs her eyes as she walks outside, and sounding annoyed she says "I HAD a pleasant sleep, until these two woke me up."

Aya and Hatate quickly recover, then Hatate excitedly says "it's ok! Miss Rika, Reimu, we started working together and we found..."

Aya rummages through her right pocket, then pulls out a crumpled white hat, saying "that human's hat!"

Reimu and Rika both open their eyes wide as they stare at Guzman's hat as it straightens itself back to perfect form right on Aya's hand, then they look at each other, then back at the tengu, as if unable to believe the turn of events, then Reimu smiles and says "and already you two got results, I see."

Hatate's smile seems to slowly turn to a frown, then she says "but... this is strange. This technology is far more advanced than the kappa's technology."

Aya smiles, though shows concern through her smile as she says "it's even different from anything from the world outside."

Reimu pats Aya on the head, getting the tengu's attention, then smiles brightly and says "relax. Just focus on this, and I am sure you'll find something... right?"

Rika smiles as she bends down to look at Hatate's face, making the crow tengu smile back, then says "more importantly, you two are finally working together for once."

Hatate and Aya look at each other, then narrow their eyes for a moment, worrying Reimu and Rika.

They quickly smile at each other, then Hatate suddenly jump-hugs Rika and says "so that means you're not mad at me anymore!"

At first, Reimu smiles while looking at the situation, but she suddenly aggravated, her smile turns ominous, and a miniature Parsee flies above her head, sneering while waving her hands above the maiden's head.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Myouren temple, Budou stands on the ground, placing her left foot on the first step to the temple's entrance while pointing her little hand at Byakuren and Shou, who stare back with curiosity.

Budou takes her first step up, raising her wings in a menacing manner, while asking "why did you hurt papa Ail?"

Byakuren gasps and covers her mouth with her hands, while Shou takes a defensive position in front of Byakuren, calmly saying "young lady, I think it's about time you went back home."

Budou ignores Shou and takes another step, saying "he was very hurt last night! What kind of friend does that to a friend?"

Byakuren turns her head slightly to the right and says "I'm sorry... I couldn't help it. Ever since that attack..."

Budou stops and gasps, then lowers her wings and loudly says "you think papa is capable of hurting you? Grr! Now you're just making me mad on purpose!"

Shou raises her voice, saying "if you take another step, I'll have to act accordingly!"

Budou turns her full attention to Shou, glaring at the tiger youkai, then she brazenly steps all the way up and stands only three feet away from Shou and Byakuren.

Sounding worried, Byakuren says "wait, Shou, don't do it."

Shou looks back at Byakuren and winks, then whispers "don't worry. I'm only going to scare her", then turns to face her small opponent.

Budou stomps on the porch and loudly says "answer me already! Why did you hurt papa like that?"

Byakuren starts to tremble, her legs feeling like gelatin, while hear heart feels as though it's filled with large stones, yet she keeps herself on her feet as she gently raises her right hand and prepares to speak, but Shou wasn't expecting Byakuren to move, so she yelps and hops toward Budou too suddenly.

The little bat youkai misunderstands this as an attack, and instinctively shrieks and sends a powerful paralyzing sound wave that Shou manages to narrowly avoid by letting herself fall to the right while raising her leg and staring at the wave in shock.

Byakuren doesn't see it in time and gets struck, immediately getting paralyzed and dropping to the floor, trembling violently.

Shou straightens up and looks at Byakuren, then glares back at Budou, pulls her crystal pagoda out of her pocket, then says "you went too far! I'm going to have to teach you to respect your elders!"

Budou menacingly raises her wings as she glares back at Shou, then says "fine, if that's how you want it! After I beat you, you and your master better apologize to papa Ail!"

Minamitsu, Ichirin and Unzan exit the temple right after Shou and Budou take flight, then Minamitsu rushes to Byakuren and lifts her head, asking "HIJIRI! What happened here? Why is that girl fighting Shou?"

Byakuren trembles as she tries to straighten up, and manages to day "girl... apologize... paralyze... wave", then gives up and just falls on Minamitsu's arms.

Ichirin prepares herself to go after Shou and Budou, but Unzan gets in front of her, crossing his arms while shaking his head.

Ichirin stares aggravated toward Unzan, but sighs, then says "fine, you're right."

Minamitsu looks at Ichirin and excitedly asks "why aren't you helping her?"

Ichirin sighs and says "Unzan says it would be disrespectful of me to interfere. He says Shou would get mad at me."

Minamitsu closes her eyes, thinking for a moment, then says "hmm, I guess he's right. Unlike you, Shou can take good care of herself"

Ichirin shrieks and stares in shock at Unzan and Minamitsu as they nod in agreement, then her face seems to turn red with anger as she sits down and says to herself "fine, I didn't want to overshadow her anyway."

Meanwhile, Shou and Budou stare at each other from across the sky, then Shou forms up a large rectangular holy barrier around them and says "three spell cards, little girl. We'll see who's apologizing in the end."

Budou gulps, but continues to stare at Shou with defiance, then nods and says "fine, I accept! Now get ready!"

* * *

At the Human Village, Kyo is preparing some firewood, stocking them for winter, while Luna and Medicine clean the house's windows.

Medicine finds a small smudge on the window of her room and uses her breath to try and clean it, but only managed to spread poison around it and make it worse.

Su-San comes by with a moist towel, before Medicine starts to panic, then calmly cleans the window, leaving it sparkly clean.

They all continue with their chores, unaware that they are being watched by the hooded man, who hides behind the neighboring houses in front of Kyo's house.

He snickers, then says to himself "you're going to pay for humiliating me like that, Kyo."

The man seems to shiver with excitement, then reveals his black staff from under his right sleeve, and after grasping it tight, he manages to twist it with one hand, then immediately runs at Kyo, raising the staff's long black blade and pointing it at the back of Kyo's neck.

Without making a sound, he stops right behind Kyo and swings his staff with all his might.

Kyo continues to work on the wood for the fire, unaware that his life is in danger, until he hears a loud clang right behind him and instinctively rolls away.

He quickly gets back on to his feet and already has his sword and shield ready, staring bravely at the source of the noise, but quickly relaxes and says "whoa, thanks honey."

Luna pushes her swords against the hooded man's bladed staff, and as if not exerting much effort, she looks back at Kyo with a smile and says "any time", then turns to face the stranger and asks "alright, what's your problem with Kyo, mister?"

The hooded man starts trembling violently, as if pushing back against Luna with all his might, but even Luna looks surprised at him when she realizes he stops pushing back at all.

She grunts, then asks "hey, what the hell do you think you are doing? Are you going to fight, or what?"

The man continues to tremble so violently, his hood slides back just barely, but it's enough to reveal the terrorized face of a young man with long straight raven-black hair that covers his left eye, and a pair of red eyes that seem to be frozen in fear.

Kyo narrows his eyes as he looks inside the man's hood, and unable to believe what he sees, he narrows his eyes even more and asks "D... Damien? Is that you?"

The young man turns his trembling head just slightly to look at Kyo, then returns his sight toward Luna, and without provocation, he screams, making Luna jump away, then he runs away so fast, he's already out of sight by the time Luna recovers from the surprise.

Kyo and Luna both raise their left eyebrows while staring at the cloud trail left behind by the man, then Medicine and Su-San fly above their heads and Medicine asks "what just happen? Who was that?"

Luna and Kyo look up at Luna, and reply at the same time "I don't know."

A gap opens up in front of Kyo and Luna, then Ail pops his head form inside, stares at their surprised faces, and asks "hey guys, what's up? Umm, what's with those faces?"

* * *

Above the Myouren Temple, inside Shou's makeshift arena, Budou lunges forth, trying to tackle Shou out of the sky, but the tiger youkai moves only slightly to avoid each attack, but doesn't attack back.

Budou notices this pattern, and with a mischievous smirk on her face she lunges forth again.

Shou sways to the left, and doesn't notice Budou fired four light-green lasers while flying by and gets struck by two of them on her left shoulder and thigh.

Budou smiles confidently, then pulls a spell card and says "now to end this. Sound Waves, Unheard Barrage!"

Shou watches as Budou flies far away from her, then rises high in the sky, then flies left and right, emitting a high frequency sound wave that becomes red danmaku petals that immediately and slowly rain down in a straight line to her.

Shou stares and studies the attack, then thinks "she shifts the pattern just slightly to cover those massive gaps. Well, I promised I'd go easy on her, so... Wait, what is-?"

To Shou's great surprise, after getting surrounded by the petals, they home in on her, making her take sudden evasive maneuvers to avoid being hit.

Budou stops for a moment and says "these will home in on you, no matter what you do. They follow the sound of your heartbeat", then continues her attack, preparing another shower.

Shou takes this moment of respite and draws a spell card from her right pocket, then shouts "let's see if you can attack after THIS! Jeweled Pagoda, Radiant Treasure!"

Shou lifts her left hand with the jeweled pagoda to chest-height, from where six blue beams spread out, trapping Budou between two, and stopping her spell.

Thing yellow lasers spread out from the pagoda itself, cutting through the beams, making them look like a giant flower, then the blue beams break and become slow-moving orbs that scatter around the aerial arena, making Budou graze through bullets and making her little heart race with anxiety.

Shou smirks and chuckles, then says to herself "this little one sure is full of energy, but she lacks experience. Heh, it's over."

Budou corners herself against one of the edges of the holy barrier, then trembles as a small concentration of cluttered orbs fly her way, unable to see a small gap she could use to fly through them due her anxiety.

Though she's so scared, he holds back her desire to cry as she faces the bullets and takes them head-on, but before they get too close, Phredia springs right out of her heart and creates a crystal barrier that bounces the orbs away.

Shou opens her eyes wide in surprise, then shouts "wait, what the heck?", then stares at Budou and the little elf fairy, and shouts "hey, that's cheating!"

From the temple's roof, Nue shouts "hey~! Don't be such a crybaby!"

Kogasa sits to Nue's right and shouts "I'm rooting for the little one! Sorry!"

Nazrin stands to Nue's left, looking a little excited as she raises her left hand and shouts with all her might "go on master! Even with that hack, you can do it!"

A drop of sweat rolls down the left side of Shou's head as she stares at the cheering girls, then says "well, it looks like they're having fun... And what's a hack?"

Budou calls for Shou, getting her attention, so she can see the laser beams headed her way, but Shou isn't ready to just let Budou win, so she dodges the lasers as best as she can, but Budou manages to tackle her from the left, canceling the spell.

From the roof, Kogasa shouts "way to go! Keep it up little bat!", while Nazrin boos, hisses and shouts "Master's getting old!"

Budou now flies in front of Shou, with Phredia sitting on her right shoulder, then says "don't think I'll just LET you win, just because I'm little!"

Shou shakes her head to recover, ignoring Nue's taunts, then smirks at Budou and says "oh, I'm sorry. Here, let me turn the heat up for you!"

* * *

Phredia holds on tight to Budou's shoulder, bracing herself as Budou prepares to tackle Shou again, but their preparations come to a halt when they notice Shou raises her crystal pagoda while smiling at them.

From the pagoda, countless yellow beams swirl all around Show, then seem to form a net in front of her, and very suddenly spread out, accompanied by Shou's own red orbs.

Budou yelps after missing the lasers by an inch, then gets grazed by a trail of red orbs and shouts "he-hey! What kind of an attack is... KYAH~!"

Before either Budou or Phredia can react, Shou unleashes another attack, and Budou gets struck by both lasers and orbs, screaming as they burn her.

Shou stops when she sees Budou scrunching up and trembling, then asks "how about it young lady? Want to quit now?"

Phredia rubs Budou's cheek while sitting on her shoulder, while tears cling on to Budou's eyes.

She sniffles and whimpers, then whispers to herself "d-don't cry Budou. This is a fight for your papa. Don't cry, don't cry..."

The little bat youkai recovers, although she continues to tremble while pointing at Shou, then gulps and says "w-w-we're not done yet! Y-y-you just got lucky there!"

Shou sighs and giggles, then says to herself "ah, she's just about done. Just need a little bit more of a push."

She pulls out a spell card and says "alright young lady. I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice. Buddhist Art, Most Valuable Vajra!"

Budou gasps in horror after Shou declares her spell, then whimpers when she sees the large green beam that spreads from Shou's pagoda, then starts spinning clockwise.

The little bat shrieks when she realizes she has to move, or the thick beam will get her, then Shou starts shooting red rice-shaped bullets, forcing Budou to time her moves.

Though Phredia is doing her best to deflect the bullets, Budou still whimpers at the sight of the large beam and thinks "what should I do, what should I do? If that thing touches me, it's going to hurt! What would papa do?"

Budou yelps when the laser gets too close to her, so she moves again and notices she's right in front of Shou.

She takes a spell card out of her pocket, then raises it above her head and loudly says "Wave Sign, Ringing Ears!"

Budou claps her hands hard, then cups her hands around her mouth and quickly shrieks as loud as she can, creating a sound wave that paralyzes Shou the second she hears it, cancels her spell, and leaves a trail of scattered danmaku shards behind it.

Shou recovers quickly from the paralysis, and screams as soon as the bullets swarm to her and explode on her arms, head and back.

Again, Budou claps her hands and shrieks as loudly as she can, but Shou manages to fly away from the sound wave, then dodges the bullets headed her way, while saying to herself "dammit, I underestimated her! Guh, I better do something before she-?"

Budou repeats her attack once more, but this time, she raises her hands in front of herself and fires five green lasers from her little hands that cut Shou's movements and causes her to get paralyzed and struck by the danmaku.

Agitated, Shou rubs her head and growls, then rushes toward Budou, dodging Phredia's large golden orbs and shooting her own red orbs back.

Budou shrieks again, but this time out of fright, cancelling her own spell in order to fly away from Shou's orbs, also causing Phredia to fall off her shoulders.

From the temple's roof, Kogasa shouts "come on little one, don't get scared! Go~!", Nazrin shouts "way to go master! You got her on the run!", and Nue simply sighs, smiles, then says to herself "this is quite amusing, really."

On the temple's entrance, Byakuren is recovering from her paralysis, and raises a shivering hand to Minamitsu, saying "s-s-s-s-stop... S-s-s-t-t... stop..."

Minamitsu stares at Byakuren with confusion, then rubs her head and asks "stop? You mean stop them? I can't. Shou put up a barrier."

* * *

Back at the Human Village, Ail, Kyo, Luna, Sanae, Maribel and Renko walk to Keine's school for a visit, and while the girls talk amongst each other, Kyo and Ail hurry ahead.

Kyo and Ail approach the village's center, when Kyo suddenly says "but I'm serious! That's Damien, the same Damien from that gang!"

Ail looks at Kyo with curiosity and asks "but shouldn't he be some old dude by now?"

Kyo is about to reply, but he stops and looks around with suspicion, then asks "did it just get a little too quiet around here?"

Ail looks around and notices the girls are far behind, banging on some invisible wall and shouting, though their voices fail to come through.

Before Ail warns Kyo, the young man called Damien reveals himself standing in front of Keine's school with his hood revealed.

His hair is raven-black and long, covering his left eye, his skin is pale, and although he looks a bit shaggy, he appears to emanate a powerful dark aura.

He sneers as he looks at Ail and Kyo with his red eyes, then says "well, well, it's been a while, Kyo and Ail. The two bastards that destroyed all my hard work!"

Ail stares at Damien, blinks twice, then asks "that scrawny guy is Damien?"

Damien silently smirks, while Kyo glares back at him while saying "don't underestimate him. If I recall correctly, he only takes his hood off when-"

Damien smiles as he flips a spell card from under his right fingerless glove and says "when he's gonna get serious. Now, DIE! Chaos Sign, Spark of DEATH!"

Damien's spell card turns into a purple orb of pure demonic energy, then laughs manically as it expands, turning into a miniature sun, then throws it straight at Kyo and Ail. Kyo summons his wind shield and fire sword, both augmented in power because of the amplifier on Kyo's belt, and Ail's bracelet glows white and forms a long broadsword made entirely of holy light that seems to mold around his hand by the hilt.

Together, Ail and Kyo use their weapons to strike the massive attack and dispel it, only to discover the miniature sun comes accompanied by an insane shower of purple colored orbs that make the shape of wyverns.

Without wasting another moment, Ail opens a massive black gap, where most of the wyverns get absorbed into, while Kyo throws his shield to dispel some of the other wyverns.

Damien laughs, his hair rolling back to reveal his left eye as he does, then straightens up and says "I expected no less. After all, you both seem to have made a name for yourselves while in this land."

Kyo points his sword at Damien, then threateningly asks "what the hell do you want? A quick death, perhaps?"

Damien laughs so hard, he bends backward, leaving himself open for attack, and Ail decides to take this chance and try to finish this immediately, but as he gets closer, he realizes that somehow, Damien can see him, and is ready to counter his attack at any moment, so he just uses Suwako's blessing and sends a small rocky hand to try and trap him, but Damien reveals his weapon, the staff with the black blades and red cracks on said blades, and with a single swing he shatters the stone hand, but also cancels his own spell.

Kyo flips his thumb up at Ail and says "way to go, dude", yet Damien still smiles.

Ail regroups with Kyo, who stares suspiciously at Damien, then says "whatever it is you're planning, I'm warning you now, it will only lead to your own death."

Damien smiles and says "I'm going to make you pay DEARLY for destroying my gang, Kyo and Ail."

Ail quickly asks "hang on, wasn't that old demon guy your leader?"

Damien takes flight, looking menacing as his lowered hood and open jacket take the appearance of demonic wings, then shouts "I was the boss there, not that pathetic excuse for a RAT! He failed me when he failed to kill you BOTH, so I took the liberty of... devouring his life force."

Ail and Kyo look at each other, unable to hide the sense of fear in their hearts after hearing those words, then both take flight to keep leveled with Damien, both awaiting the dark man's next move.

* * *

Back above the Myouren Temple, both Shou and Budou are covered in burn marks from all the lasers and orbs they've shot at each other, and still, they continue their battle.

Budou, in such short time, has learned how to make her lasers move so randomly and quickly as Shou's, while Shou tries to be as relentless as possible without going overboard on the little girl.

Suddenly, the attacks all stop and both girls take a breather.

Panting, Shou stares at Budou and thinks "she's really pushing me. I have no choice. I'm going to have to take her out now!"

Shou quickly realizes Phredia is flying close to her face, so she stares at the elf fairy with curiosity, then Phredia pulls down on her left eyelid and sticks her tongue out at Shou, making the tiger youkai gasp and stare back with white eyes surrounded by shadow.

After recovering, Shou takes a spell card from her right pocket and angrily says "alright, that's it young ladies! It's time I taught you BOTH a lesson in respect!"

Budou looks at Phredia as the elf fairy slowly makes her way back to her shoulder, then turns to face Shou and says "respect? You shouldn't talk about respect after what you did to papa! Associating him with that Guzman monster!"

Shou gasps, then says "th-that's totally irrelevant! Ail understood. That's why he left so quickly!"

Budou clenches her teeth as she shouts back "did it ever occur to you that he left before you HURT him?"

Shou gasps, covering her mouth with her spell card, unable to answer Budou.

The little bat youkai takes a spell card form her pocket, then says "you weren't even thinking about that! Tch, I definitely have to win now! Wave Sign, Shapeless Mind!"

The second Budou declares her spell, Shou reacts and shouts "Complete Clarification!"

Budou's spell creates light-green beams that seem to form a giant fist, while Shou's pagoda glows brighter, and brighter, and when both girls are ready to unleash their spells, Byakuren comes flying form below, holding on to a giant paper fan and looking very distressed.

Shou and Budou both cancel their spells, then Shou gets closer to Byakuren and asks "lady Hijiri, how did you get in here?"

Byakuren stares at Shou as though ready to cry, then smacks her hard to the ground with her paper fan while shouting "Shou, you've been a bad girl!"

Shou screams as she falls to the ground, then Budou notices Byakuren turns her distressed face at her.

The little bat youkai tries to fly away, but Byakuren gets to her and smacks her with the paper fan, and while Budou screams and falls, Byakuren loudly says "and that's NO way to start a conversation, young lady! I thought Ail taught you better than that!"

Phredia silently flies away, trying to get away from Byakuren with a frightened face, but Byakuren grabs the fairy by her left pointy ear and says "and you should have stopped them when you had the chance!"

Phredia tries to break free from Byakuren's ear pull, but the magician has one firm grip, and as she floats down, she looks at Nazrin, Nue and Kogasa on the roof and says "and you three only made things WORSE! Now get over here so you may receive your just punishment!"

Nue and Nazrin yelp, but quickly slump and moan, while Kogasa stares at Byakuren, sticks out her tongue, then flies away backwards, saying "you will never catch me!"

When she turns around, she bumps onto something soft and says to herself "whoa, is this Unzan?"

When the takes a better look, she realizes it's Byakuren, smiling with an ominous shadow cast on her closed eyes, then Kogasa whimpers as Byakuren's shadow covers her.

From below, Nazrin and Nue stare with horror to the sky as Kogasa screams as though she's being horribly torn apart by a powerful force, then Nazrin gulps and says "o-oi, Nue... We should have warned her..."

Nue nods, trembling while her terrorized eyes are cast under a purple shadow, then says "e-e-escapes attempts... make things worse."

* * *

Back at the village, outside the magical dome, Sanae desperately grabs Maribel by her shoulders and shakes her violently while shouting "you have to get Reimu! She'll break through this!"

Renko frees Maribel from Sanae's grasp and quickly says "calm down green maiden! We'll get Reimu. You try and free those two in the meantime!"

Sanae looks back to Luna, ready to ask for help, but Luna and Medicine are already flying around the dome, attacking it with all they got, hoping to find a weakness.

Sanae looks back at Maribel and Renko, and quickly finds they are already flying to the shrine, so she takes a deep breath to calm herself down, pulls her gohei and a few amulets from her pockets, sticks the amulets to the dome, then begins to chant in a strange dialect.

Meanwhile, inside the large dome, Ail and Kyo fly around to avoid Damien's black and purple fireballs, Ail turning around occasionally and firing massive blue and white orbs back at Damien, while Kyo uses his shield to reflect some fireballs back.

Ail and Kyo stop very suddenly, letting Damien fly past them, then Ail says "Kyo, after me!"

Kyo watches as Damien's fireballs rapidly consume the only tree caught inside the barrier, then nods and says "let's stop him now, before anything else happens!"

Ail flies after Damien, who is already prepared to receive Ail with a smile, but his smile quickly vanishes when Ail shows him a spell card and shouts "Earth Sign, Earth Spirit Heartbeat!"

Innumerable amounts of white and green shard bullets sprout all around Ail, mimicking his heartbeat as they scatter toward Damien, then Ail starts shooting various homing blue orbs, as well as summon blue lasers the come from two magical circles that set themselves beside Ail, cutting Damien's area of movement.

Damien smiles, even though some shards manage to hit him, then pulls out another spell card from his pocket and while smiling, he says "Tower of Arrogance!"

Black orbs surround Damien, then form a tall tower, where Damien stands on its top, where Ail's bullets aren't able to reach him.

Ail tries to turn his lasers up, but Damien laughs and starts shooting more black fireballs at Ail, making him fly away and take cover, cancelling his spell.

Damien laughs and shouts "what's the matter? Is that all you got, you wimp?"

From behind, Kyo softly says "Gales of the Bouncing Orb!", and throws his shield as if were a disk.

Damien turns around in surprise, then laughs when the disk only reaches halfway up his dark tower, but the disk suddenly turns around and starts drawing an octagon, and as soon as the octagon is drawn, the disk disappears and four large tornadoes form inside.

Damien gasps in surprise and shouts "what? That's impossible!", then watches in horror as the powerful wind consumes his danmaku tower and makes him fall, though he flies in time to avoid hitting the ground.

To his dismay, many blue petal bullets that form around the tornadoes home in on him and force him to take evasive maneuvers.

He is struck by one of the bullets and forced into one of the tornadoes, where he screams as he is flung around.

Ail takes this chance and turns his sword of light into a long pole and thrusts it inside the tornado, striking Damien hard and pinning him against the ground, just as the tornadoes start to vanish.

After the dust clears, Kyo rushes toward Ail's pole, lifting his fire sword above his head and screaming as he rushes forth.

He swings his sword straight at Damien's neck, but Damien grabs the sword with his right hand as if it were nothing at all, smiles, then says "nice try, but you'll have to do a LOT better than that!"

He pulls Kyo up while holding on to the sword, then flings Kyo away, and with his left hand, he grabs Ail's pole and pushes it down, forcing Ail to land on his head on the ground.

After witnessing this, Sanae panics and loses her concentration, just as her own talismans were opening the barrier, then she starts banging on it and calls for Ail, sounding desperate as she does.

Luna shouts "Sanae girl, calm down! Look, he's alright!"

Sanae looks inside and notices Ail is slowly standing up, rubbing his head with his left hand, while creating what looks like a small blue barrier that emanates from his bracelet, obviously a shield from Shinki's blessing.

Sanae sighs, calms down, then says "s-sorry. I just..."

Medicine quickly shouts "you can apologize later! We have to open this, NOW!"

* * *

Back at the Myouren temple, after Byakuren's punishments to Nazrin and Nue, Budou finally calms down and sits on the temple's porch, next to Shou, who whispers "see what you caused?"

Budou sighs, then Phredia flies back to her shoulder, making her turn around and get up when she sees Byakuren standing behind her with a sad smile on her face.

Without waiting for Budou to speak, Byakuren kneels down to face Budou, then says "I'm so sorry about Ail, miss Budou. I know anything I say to my defense might sound like an excuse, but Ail is my friend too, and it hurt me when I reacted like I did, especially after seeing his face."

Budou angrily stomps on the floor and loudly says "then why didn't you apologize? It's just so unfair! He only came to say hi, nothing else! Friends don't do that to friends... Right...?"

Shou smiles, but prevents herself from chuckling, then says "it's not as simple as that. Lady Hijiri when through a terrible experience, and it's going to take some time for her to recover."

Budou sobs as a tear escapes her right eye, then looks at Byakuren and with a cracking voice, she says "but papa is not that Guzman! Papa is good! He would never do that!"

Byakuren wants to look away from Budou's violet eyes, then Budou quickly says through her cracking voice "you're a good person too! I can see it! You say you need to recover! Apologizing to papa can help you!"

Minamitsu leans against the left side of the door's archway at the very entrance to the temple, then says "you just don't get it. Byakuren is dead afraid of men after being so viciously attacked, and can you blame her? She's a very good person, just like you say, but that man betrayed that good in her."

Budou looks at Minamitsu and shouts "papa is not that man!"

Minamitsu looks inside the temple and mumbles "you just don't get it."

Shou gets up and grabs Budou, giving her a light embrace, then says "look, if it makes you feel better, I'll go with you and apologize to Ail on lady Hijiri's behalf. Is that ok?"

Budou sniffles and rubs her left eye, then nods, but Byakuren suddenly says "I'll apologize myself, so please take me to him!"

Shou, Budou and Minamitsu stare at Byakuren with surprise, then Shou asks "are you sure lady Hijiri?"

Budou gulps, then adds "re-really, it's fine if miss Shou-"

Byakuren stands up and dusts her skirt, then says "little Budou is right. Ail can help me recover faster, I just know it. Shou, take care of the temple while I'm out."

Shou salutes at Byakuren, but before she can speak, from behind them, above the temple's courtyard, Kogasa, who has her hands, arms, legs and neck wrapped in bandages, laughs and says out loud "prepare to be surprised! Halo, Karakasa Surprising-"

A large golden washtub falls from the sky and on to Kogasa's head, making a powerful clang that makes the temple vibrate, and forces Budou and Shou to cover their ears.

Surprised, Byakuren, Shou, Budou, Phredia and Minamitsu gasp and rush to her aid, Byakuren shouting "Kogasa-chan, are you alright?"

Kogasa lies on the ground with a stuffed belly, a wide smile on her face, a pair of spinning eyes, and a large, pulsating red bump on her head.

While the girls tend to Kogasa, on the temple's training grounds behind the large wall, Nazrin lies on Nue's back, both with spinning eyes and their tongues sticking out of their mouths, while Ichirin prepares the first aid kit.

As Unzan grabs Nazrin, she manages to mumble "Hi-Hijiri's... ear pull... so painful."

* * *

Back at the Human Village, Sanae concentrates on breaking an opening on that dome and save Ail and Kyo, but she is distracted by Reimu's enraged voice.

Reimu and Rika arrive to the village, and the first thing they see is a dome what looks like a mass of swirling dark energy, and after gasping in surprise, Reimu shouts "who the hell put up a demon arena in here?"

Rika immediately adds "who is in there?" Sanae looks up at Reimu with curiosity and asks "wait, a demon arena? Reimu, it's just an invisible-"

Reimu cuts Sanae off right after landing, shouting "that's a demon arena, Sanae! You should know about this. You're a maiden after all!"

Reimu notices the confusion on Sanae's face and gets quite aggravated, but when Luna and Medicine join in the confused stares, she groans while face palming herself hard.

Rika sighs, then says "this dome is a demon arena. It's meant to look like a harmless invisible dome to humans, when in reality, it's a barrier with swirling dark magic that can kill those who try to breach it... if they don't know how to open it."

Medicine takes a closer look, narrowing her eyes to focus, then notices the dark swirls, screams, then asks "but why couldn't I see this before?"

Reimu throws amulet after amulet until covering a large chunk of the dome, knocking out Sanae's own amulets, then says "you were too distraught! Sanae, help me here! Rika, when I give the signal, go in there and get them out!"

Rika nods and asks "and the perpetrator?"

Reimu smirks and says "leave him to Luna and Sanae."

From the other side of the dome, Keine is outside the school standing on her feet with the help of Mokou, looking at the dark dome while saying "Mokou, I think Reimu's going to try and break this. Maybe you should go and lend a hand over-"

Mokou shakes her head and quickly replies "you need my help just to stand up. No way I'm letting you on your own."

Inside the dome, Damien cackles as he unleashes a hellish barrage of black fireballs at Ail and Kyo, but suddenly stops and looks around, turning even more pale and looking like a ghost.

Ail and Kyo both look back with curiosity, then look around as well.

Above them, Aya and Hatate seem to be waiting to strike.

Behind Damien, Keine and Mokou look as though they are concentrating on something, while behind themselves, Reimu and Sanae continue their chant and start making an opening in the barrier, and Rika and the other girls seem eager to enter.

Ail looks back at Damien and notices how he stares at the girls, then asks "wait a minute? Are you scare of...?"

Kyo finishes the question as bluntly as he possibly can "you're scared of girls?", then starts laughing so hard, tears come out of his eyes and roll down his already red cheeks.

Ail, on the other hand, simply chuckles and looks away, doing his best to keep from laughing as hard as Kyo.

Damien's face turns red with anger, then he shouts "what's with all these GIRLS? Are you guys some sort of perverts? Is this some sort of harem you got here?"

Kyo and Ail stop laughing and glare at Damien so fiercely, the young demonic man can feel their glares, then Ail angrily says "oy, I'm going to have to wash your mouth with soap!"

Kyo cracks his knuckles and summons his shield and sword, both looking more intense than usual, then he says "I guess you need a lesson in manners."

* * *

Just before Kyo and Ail start their attack, Budou and Byakuren reach the dome on Keine and Mokou's side, and after looking inside, Budou desperately asks "what's going on? Who's that attacking papa and large brother?"

Keine manages to turn her head along with Mokou, then replies "we don't know. This thing trapped them in there and they've been fighting ever since!"

Byakuren immediately begins to pray, while Budou whimper and looks inside, and Phredia gently rubs her head, trying to calm her down.

Inside the dome, Ail showers Damien with small white orbs and bouncing lasers, while Kyo throws his shield like a disk and fires small red beams from his sword, yet Damien stands in the very same spot, bending around as though he's merely stretching, and only moving his feet slightly to avoid direct hits.

Kyo raises his left hand to Ail, signaling his friend to stop, then pulls a spell card from his pocket and says "let me handle this", and immediately walks toward Damien.

After getting about five feet of distance to Damien, Kyo smiles and says "well, old friend, this is it. Really, I did not enjoy our reunion at all, so please, once you blow up, don't come back."

Damien smiles widely, looking almost demented, then loudly says "what are you SAYING? I am having a GREAT time. In fact, I was wondering if you wanted to join me in this DANCE!"

Quickly, Damien draws a spell card and shouts "Steel Sign, Iron Horse, Iron Terror!"

Damien chants rapidly, and when he stops, he extends his right hand, pointing his open palm at Kyo, and a dark hole opens up on it.

From the hole, what looks like a miniature blood-red train rushes forth, making Kyo smile and chuckle, but Kyo's smile quickly disappears when the train expands to massive proportions as it leaves Damien's hand.

The train misses Kyo by inches, but even though the main attack missed, Kyo finds himself trapped between two more trains, these ones made with black danmaku fireballs.

Kyo scoffs, then says "a very nice trick. Now it's my turn. Fire and Wind Sign, Desert Gales!"

Kyo's sword and shield disappear and surround Kyo's arms instead, then Kyo channels the fire from his right arm, and the wind from his left and makes them mix and spin around him, causing Damien's danmaku trains to weaken considerably.

Damien gasps with surprise when he realizes Kyo is breaking through his spell with ease, yet he cannot move while his demonic train continues to come out of his hand.

After the combination of wind and fire spins fast enough around Kyo, he screams, channeling great power, then fireballs home in on Damien, while hot wind blades rapidly make their way to the young looking man.

Unable to move, Damien can only scream as Kyo's attack strikes him hard without pause for an entire thirty seconds, even after Damien's own spell times out ten seconds before Kyo's.

Finally, Kyo stops, and though he looks exhausted, he turns around to Ail and flips his thumb up at his friend.

From outside, the girls seem to relax a bit when they see Kyo triumph over the young black-haired man, but from Reimu's side, Sanae gasps, while at Keine's side, Budou screams and cries out to her papa.

Inside the dome, Ail grunts when the back of Damien's dark staff goes right through his body and disappears, leaving him paralyzed, while Damien rises from the smoke, screaming with rage.

With his red eyes glowing bright, Damien reveals another spell card and shouts "you're going to pay DEARLY FOR THAT! Chaos Sign, Demonic Magicanon!"

Damien joins his hands by the wrists, cups them together, points them at Ail, then a massive black and purple beam the size of Marisa's Final Spark flies straight to Ail, consuming his paralyzed body in seconds.

From the outside the dome, Sanae and Budou scream their lungs out for Ail, while Luna quietly screams in her mind for Kyo, who, unnoticed by the rest, managed to get between Ail and the beam, yet she will not scream and simply stares with dread in her eyes.

Inside the dome, Kyo uses his wind shield to protect Ail and himself from the massive beam, using every last ounce of his, and the amplifier's power to push back the demonic fire.

His amplifier glows brightly for almost ten seconds, then shatters to thousands of tiny pieces, right before Kyo's own eyes, and the moment it shatters, Damien's beam breaks through Kyo's shield with ease, then all that can be heard is Kyo's scream as it echoes all over the village the very second Damien's dome shatters.

Luna stands frozen in place when Kyo's scream reaches her ears, but Sanae and Rika snap her out of her state of shock after pulling on her arms, then all the girls, including Budou, rush toward the boys, shooting their bullets straight to Damien, who cackles rapidly and flies away as fast as he can.

Ail has already recovered from his paralysis, holding on to Kyo and shaking him lightly, trying to wake him up, shouting "Kyo! Kyo, wake up! Kyo!"

Ail lifts his friend, trying to get a response, but all he get is Kyo's limp head bending down toward the ground.

Ail trembles as he slowly sets Kyo down, and just as the girls reach them, his ethereal dragon wings and night-sky eyes reveal his blood limit has been activated on its own, and just as those wings spring form his back, he flies away.

Rika shouts "whoa! His Yozoragan mode activated on its own!", and prepares her Soraogan mode to fly after him, but Reimu calls her, taking her attention away from Ail, then says "Rika, I need you here. Come on!"

While Ail goes after Damien, the girls tend to Kyo, Reimu using her amulets to fizzle the dark flames that threaten to burn the skin on his arm and around his neck.

While all of this happens, Budou is trying to free herself from Byakuren's embrace, shouting "no! No, I have to go! Papa needs help!"

Byakuren closes her eyes and pats Budou's head, then says "there, there, he will be alright. He'll come back very soon, I promise. Just, stay with me, because when he returns... I'll apologize straight away; but you have to stay here with me... for support."

Phredia pushes Budou's chest to try and force her to stay with Byakuren, but after the magician's words, the little bat Youkai calms down, sobs, then turns around to hug Byakuren back.

* * *

All through the afternoon, Ail flies all over the Forest of Magic and the Field of the Sun looking for Damien, but the young man has apparently vanished, so he decides to open a gap straight to Eirin's Clinic after calming down enough.

At the clinic, only Reimu, Rika, Luna, Sanae, Budou and Byakuren remain.

Aya and Hatate have to try and figure out Guzman's hat, Renko and Maribel are accompanying Medicine back to Kyo's house, and Keine is still too weak due to the remains of Guzman's poison in her body, so she and Mokou are already back at the school.

Ail's jumps out of his gap right inside the clinic's waiting room, where Sanae immediately jumps on him, embraces him, then says "calm down. He's just unconscious, so Eirin is treating some strange burn wounds."

Ail sighs and calmly says "I'm ok now. I couldn't find him though."

Sanae sighs, then says "it's alright. He's probably going to come after you anyway. You can get him then."

The second Sanae lets him go, Budou jumps on Ail and forces him to hug her back while saying "papa, you dummy. You could have gotten hurt! Then miss Byakuren would have waster her time!"

Ail rubs the back of Budou's head, then asks "what do you mean?"

Byakuren stands from her chair, and with great effort from her part, she manages to look at Ail's face, though it is obvious by the frightened look in her eyes, it's not easy for her.

Ail sighs, then says "so that's what you were doing all that time, huh Budou? Look, Byakuren... it's alright, I understand-"

Byakuren gulps, then raises her hand, signaling Ail to allow her to speak, then says "it's just unfair of me to treat you like that, and after I know you so well. It's not easy, after what that monster did, but... Ail, please forgive my behavior last night... and I hope we can put this behind us."

Byakuren's tension seems to lessen by the time she finishes speaking, then bows to Ail, who gets nervous at first, but then relaxes and says "I understand, and I appreciate what you did. It... it must have taken great courage to come to me and say all that. Apology accepted, of course... and thank you. It really means a great deal to me."

Byakuren raises her head, now looking more calm and natural, then sees Ail smiling at her as a tear of joy escapes his left eye.

She smile back and gets closer to Ail, then rubs the top of his head and says "I can't believe I thought you were that scary guy. You're a teddy bear in comparison."

Sanae's eyes seem to glow green for a second as she gets closer to Ail and discreetly pulls him away from Byakuren while whispering between her teeth "hey Ail, she seems a little bit too friendly. What did you do?"

Ail sweats and smiles nervously, then says "Sanae, calm down. She's just being nice. Right Byakuren-san?"

Byakuren giggles, then nods and says "mister Ail is not like that, miss Sanae."

Sanae calms down and sighs, smiles, kisses Ail's cheek, then says "I'm sorry sweetie. She's right, you're not like that."

Ail and Budou look at each other with great confusion, then Ail asks her "did something just happen?"

Budou shrugs and replies "don't ask me."

Still holding on to Budou, and having recovered his good cheer, Ail approaches Rika, smiles, then says "hey, thanks a lot miss Rika!"

Rika and Reimu sit on adjacent chairs, and look at each other with great curiosity, then Rika asks "e-excuse me? I did something?"

Ail chuckles and says "you gave my limit a good name. The 'Yozoragan mode'. Really, I was just calling it 'night-eyes state', heh."

Rika chuckles, her sword's jewel glows blue for Ail again, then says "so glad I could help. I'm just good with naming things is all."

After exchanging smiles, Sanae clings on to Ail's back, then Kyo and Eirin walk out of the examination room, and although he looks healthy, Kyo's face seems to suggest he is not well at all.

Luna shrieks and immediately rushes to Kyo, giving him a kiss, and quickly wraps her arms around him.

Eirin sighs, then says "he's back to perfect health. Thankfully, the beam did very little damage, probably thanks to that stone he had..."

Kyo growls inward, then says "the amplifier is gone now. My spell cards... they're useless! I can't fly, I am just useless now!"

A mixture of sadness and surprise strikes all in the waiting room, however Luna grabs Kyo's face, forces him to look at her, and stares into his eyes.

Not a single word is exchanged, but Kyo understands what she wants to say to him, and after a loud sigh, he calms down and says "come on... Let's just go home for now."

Ail opens a gap to the village for them, and while they go through it, from a tree outside, hooded again, Damien watches and smiles, then says "Kyo's become a pushover. I can deal with him whenever I want. Now Ail, that's going to take some effort. Ha hah! Guess I'll kill him first."

Damien jumps from the branch and seems to disappear in an instant, his cackle echoing all over the Bamboo Forest, alerting Eintei to his presence, though they are unable to tell where he is.

* * *

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Kyo, Budou, Phredia and Guzman were created by Willie G.R.

Ail's "Earth Sign, Earth Spirit Heartbeat" spell card,

Kyo's "Gales of the Bounding Orb", and "Fire and Wind Sign, Desert Gale" spell cards,

And Budou's "Wave Sign, Ringing Ears", "Sound Wave, Unheard Barrage, and "Wave Signs, Shapeless Mind" spell cards were all created by Willie G.R. Similarities are strictly coincidental.

Rika Onkamikami was created by Snapshot 2010

Damien was created by Hydroviper

Damien's "Chaos Sign, Spark of Death", "Tower of Arrogance", and "Steel Sign, Iron Horse, Iron Terror" spell cards were created by Hydroviper.

"Chaos Sign, Demonic Magicanon" spell card was created by Willie G.R. and approved for use for Damien by Hydroviper. Spell is derivative of "Master Spark".

SEPT 15 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Long chapter, interesting events, and yet more to come. Really, that was a long list of disclaimers. Ah well, all for the best. I would like to apologize that I haven't replied to any review (though it's a bit hard replying to anonymous reviews), and honestly, I'm not in the right state of mind to reply many. I already left one goo reply on the reviews anyway, in case anybody cares. Anyway, thanks for reading and take care.**

**Note that Ails name for his limit was provided by Snapshot, so, I had Rika give it to Ail. Yes, we had that same discussion after she told me the possible name for Ail's bloodline limit. Also, please do not abbreviate Aya and Hatate's team name. They won't like it... much.  
**

**Oh yeah, I know these chapters aren't really focusing on Nitori or the antagonist. Call them links, fillers, whatever you want, for the events that are to take place at the end. Oh, and hope you enjoyed the classic giant paper fan bit.**


	9. Chapter 9

**NOTE:**

**This chapter is quite long, so grab a snack, some tea, maybe some cookies and milk, and enjoy. Please do review this chapter and let me know if you like my chapters being longer, or if you rather have me keep them short. Anyway, if you don't say anything, I'll keep making them this long. Do enjoy, ze.

* * *

**

It's a beautiful autumn morning, and Ail flies all over the sky with his Yozoragan blood limit already activated, searching high and low for Damien, while Budou stays with Sanae and the goddesses at the Moriya Shrine, all blissfully unaware of Ail's absence.

Meanwhile, at the Netherworld, inside the ghostly Hakugyokurou Shrine's living room, Youmu kneels in front of a small table, bowing her head while closing her eyes.

On the other side of the table sits Yuyuko, who taps the tip of her closed fan on her own chin, then suddenly opens it up, fans her face, then places the open fan with the flowers design open in front of herself, covering her mouth.

After keeping silent for another ten seconds, Yuyuko sternly says "I think you have been punished long enough, but I must impress on you the severity of your actions. Youmu Konpaku, the young gardener of Hakugyokurou, and my servant, you are hereby relieved from your restrains, and you may continue your services as per usual. However, Youmu, if you ever disrespect me in front of guests again, I will exert swift and severe punishment upon you, have I made this clear to you?"

As though still being punished, a small tear rolls down Youmu's left cheek as she nods and replies with a cracking voice "y-yes, lady Saigyouji. I... I will never question your command, ever again."

Yuyuko giggles, then lowers her fan and sounding more playful, she says "it's alright Youmu. You can call me by my first name again if you like."

Though Yuyuko seems content, Youmu can't help but still feel a powerful sting in her heart.

She remembers how she, knowing full well what she was doing, dared to challenge Yuyuko's command.

To her, thinking it was because of their age difference because of that spell, was a simple excuse she came up with in her mind to justify her bold actions.

However, she also knows that if she doesn't respond now, Yuyuko will be offended again, so she fakes an unconvincing smile, then says "th-thank you... Yuyuko... sama."

Yuyuko knows her gardener is still sore, the fact so evident in her face and that fleeting smile.

She sighs and rolls her eyes, then says "Youmu, I want you to make breakfast now, and I want you to leave lunch ready too. Afterward, you are to go to the Hakurei Shrine and wait for me there."

Youmu's face turns normal very quickly as she thinks "the Hakurei Shrine? But miss Rika is there. Oh, how I long to challenger her; such a worthy opponent. Wait, is lady Saig- Is Yuyuko offering me...?"

Yuyuko giggles and says "better hurry up. I hear Rika wakes up very early to start her daily training."

Youmu fails to hide the eager smile on her face as she springs to her feet and gasps, looking overly excited after what she's heard.

She raises both fists and clenches them tightly with excitement, smiles brightly at Yuyuko, then nods and says "as you wish, Yuyuko-sama! Breakfast and lunch coming up!", then she eagerly makes her way to the kitchen.

Yuyuko stays where she is, smiling at nothing while thinking "she's such a young girl still. It's nice to see that smile once in a while."

In the kitchen, Youmu rapidly cuts some vegetables, some tofu, a large fish, and prepares two large bowls to cook the ingredients, all done very fast and with excellent precision.

While she's pouring the rice on a third bowl, she thinks "Yuyu-sama must be in such high spirits! Finally, I get to challenge her! Oh, this is going to be great! What spells should I use? What spells will she show me? Hurry Youmu, hurry! Your opponent is waiting for you!"

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Human Village, Keine walks out of the school and finds Shizuha with her dress in tatters, standing in front of the school, and Minoriko lying on the ground next to Shizuha with her eyes spinning in place.

Keine gasps and asks "girls, what in the world happened?"

Shizuha chuckles, then says "the vampires wanted to steal the natto from the restaurant in the east corner."

Minoriko moans, whimpers, then cries "the youkai tried to force their way from the north. They wanted pillows!"

Shizuha continues "and the night sparrows well all eager to perch on the dragon statue."

Minoriko whimpers again, then finishes "and the rabbits from Eintei set up a trap for me!"

Keine holds the right side of her head, as though trying to absorb a massive load of information, almost falls on her back, but manages to lean against the doorway, then says "this is getting a little too dangerous. With this poison in my system, the youkai think they can do as they wish. Not just that, the children..."

From their left, the loud and happy voice of a girl gets their full attention as she says "man, these kids today! They can't even take care of their own village! It's all lack of values in my honest opinion!"

Keine looks surprised at the source of the voice and asks "a hermit has come?"

The girl has red eyes, short pink hair that reaches to her shoulders, wears a pair of Chinese buns on her head, has her right arm covered in ribbons, and wears a shackle on her left wrist.

She wears a white dress with a green skirt, and a brown panel on top, that has a thorny vine motif and a rose brooch that sits just under her collar.*

She approaches the goddesses and the teacher, then asks "and what's with all these youkai trying to enter this village? And why, of all things, was the dragon's statue defiled, and by a human?"

The girls look with surprise at the visitor, then Keine asks "um, excuse me, but who are you? And how do you know all of this?"

The woman places her right hand on her chest, smiles, then says "my apologies. My name is Kasen Ibara, and I know all of this because the birds keep telling me about it."

From behind Keine's school, Mystia takes flight, singing loudly "chin-chin~!"

Surprised, Keine chuckles, then her paralysis strikes again, falls on the ground, then Kasen quickly aids her, saying "whoa, hey there, that's no way for a teacher to behave, and much less in front of children", and picking her up from the floor.

The goddesses stand straight and pout while complaining at the same time "hey, we're goddesses! Show some respect!"

After helping Keine up, Kasen quickly waves her right hand in the air and smiles while saying "ara, ara, I was just teasing. Sorry about that."

From inside the school Mokou exclaims "Keine! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't meant to oversleep!", then rushes outside and takes Keine from Kasen's hands, saying "thanks, miss."

Kasen stares at the girls with curiosity for a moment, then suddenly smiles and says "alright, after hearing your story, I decided to help you out!"

Again, the girls stare at Kasen with surprise, then Keine asks "let me guess, the birds told you, right?"

Kasen smiles, then says "I know what happened here, and I know about that man. I also know about what ails you. I'll help you with your classes and to take care of this village while you recover, so don't you worry about a thing, alright?"

The girls look curiously at the determined smile on Kasen's face, then Keine sighs and says "even if I tell you not to, you'll still stay, so welcome to the village."

Kasen chuckles, then asks "so, is there anything you need right now?"

Shizuha immediately cries out "please help me save the natto from the vampires!"

Kasen flips her right thumb up, smiles, then pulls Shizuha by her arm, and while walking to the eastern side, Kasen sternly says "now, vampires shouldn't be a problem for a god like you! You lack much discipline, I mean look at you! You don't even respect yourself. Come on, while we get there, I want you to repeat after me 'I am a god. I am strong'. Now you try!"

Shizuha stutters for a moment, then asks "what?"

Kasen smacks the back of Shizuha's head, then says "just say it already!"

* * *

Later that morning, Rika happily hums to herself while flying in front of the shrine, while pointing her synthesizing hammer toward the shrine's roof, where countless shiny stones line in straight lines, as though ready to be hammered into the roof itself.

Rika closes her eyes and concentrates, while summoning as much energy to herself as she can, generating a weak gust around her, and after a quick scream, the hammer glows, then the entire roof glows along with it, and the stones seem to merge along with it.

After the glowing stops, Rika takes a deep breath and swipes the sweat off her forehead, makes sure the roof looks the same as always, then floats back down, and sounding a bit tired, he says "my lady, the roof has been reinforced!"

From inside, Reimu happily says "thank you very much Rika! Now let's see what happens when that celestial comes."

Rika smiles nervously as she enters to the living room, where Reimu has prepared her a meal, then says "m-my lady, you're going to make me feel bad."

Reimu signals Rika to head to the table and eat, then says "go ahead, you earned this. I'm sure that must have drained you a bit. Still, are you absolutely sure she won't break it, ever again?"

Rika starts her meal with the soup, then smiles after gulping and says "don't worry my lady, that mineral is a good equivalent of the minerals used for the ships in my time. It will hold."

Reimu chuckles, but shudders when she hears Tenshi's voice as she comes crashing down to the shrine again.

The maiden clenches her eyes and ducks, as if bracing for impact, though Rika continues to eat her meal in peace, then it happens.

Instead of the roof breaking to pieces upon Tenshi's arrival, Tenshi's keystone becomes dust, making the celestial fall on to the roof with a loud and frightful scream, while inside, Reimu can hear her groaning, as though in pain.

After Tenshi's crash, Reimu cheers and jumps in place while lifting her arms in the air, all while Merlin pops her head from Reimu's right and plays a quick fanfare, then zips away.

Rika stops eating, then sighs and says "poor girl. I'm going to check on her."

Reimu forces Rika to stay still, then says "you stay there and eat. I'll bring her inside."

Rika sighs, then continues her meal in peace, going for the rice and omelet.

After a while, she smiles when she hears Reimu boastfully asking "like my new roof, you annoying celestial?"

She giggles when Tenshi replies "ow, that was a nasty crash. I'll aim for the box next time."

Rika almost chokes on the last bit of soup when Reimu screams "if you break that donation box, I'll strip you down and throw you over the village!"

Rika sighs and moans while looking at a piece of peach pie after Tenshi replies "hey, at least I know I'm sexy!"

Unexpectedly, Reimu keeps quiet for a while, then says "come on, Rika's waiting for you."

By now, Rika is done with her meal and does a little praying, then says "thanks for the meal", and stands up.

Before she can pick up her plates, Reimu suddenly opens the left-site sliding door, and sounding annoyed, she says "Rika, you have a guest here."

Rika notices Reimu has a pair of bat wing on her back and asks "miss Reimu, what's that?"

Reimu turns her neck while turning slightly to the left to reveal Remilia, who is clinging on to her back while rubbing her face against the maiden's back, then says "this. Anyway, Youmu would like to speak to you. Don't worry, I'll take care of the dishes."

Rika looks at Reimu and asks "miss Youmu?"

Rika walks outside and finds Tenshi sitting under a tree while speaking to Youmu, who stands beside her, looking a little uneasy.

Rika approaches Youmu and Tenshi, and with a quick bow, she says "hello Tenshi, good morning, miss Youmu."

Youmu stares nervously at Rika, but respectfully bows her head and quickly asks "miss Rika-san, forgive me for being so forward, but would you spar with me? I'm sorry if this seems too sudden, but when I saw you fighting last time I've wanted to test myself against you, but if you with to decline, I will humbly accept you decision."

When Youmu finishes her statement and raises her head, she sees Rika smiling brightly, already activating her Oath Keeper and opening the golden gate, and holding the hilt of her family's sword.

With an eager smile, Rika says "the back of the shrine. There's plenty of room there."

Youmu gasps and smiles like an excited child, her smile quickly turning to an eager and confident smile, then she nods and says "alright! Let's see what we are made of!"

Rika giggles and quickly replies "I was just thinking the same."

* * *

Shortly after, Rika and Youmu stand several feet away while facing each other with their swords already unsheathed, Youmu holding her Roukanken and Hakurouken offensively, while Rika holds her Family sword and her thunder sword defensively.

Reimu, who still has Remilia on her back and rubbing her face on the back of her neck, flies above the girls and loudly says "alright girls, this is a friendly match, so I want you both to be on your best behavior! No cutting off limbs, no life threatening wounds, and absolutely no cursing."

Remilia lifts her head to look at the back of Reimu's head, then says "aww, I wanted to see something fun."

Reimu snarls at Remilia to quiet her down, then looks down to the girls again, throws a charm in the air, and as a large rectangular holy barrier expands and surround Youmu and Rika, she says "this barrier is mostly to protect my shrine... Now let the match..."

Reimu waits until the barrier is set in its place, then shouts "BEGIN!"

In the blink of an eye, Rika and Youmu are in the center of the make-shift arena, clashing swords and pushing back against each other.

While they fight, Reimu joins Tenshi on the porch, and while she cheers on for Rika, Remilia jumps off Reimu's back and says "too bad Sakuya isn't here. Maybe watching this would ignite the fire in her heart again."

Reimu stares at Remilia for a moment, then asks "where did you get such a cheesy line? Have you been reading those weird novels Patchouli keeps trying to push on me?"

Remilia gasps, her entire body twitches, then relaxes, sits to Reimu's left, then says "be-be quiet. Sakuya is still recovering, and that's all that matters."

Reimu sighs, but decides to ignore Remilia and go make some tea instead of teasing the vampire further.

Inside the shrine, Reimu hears the familiar sound of Yukari breaking a rift, and when she turns around to complain, Yukari grabs her by the shoulders and pushes her back, glaring back at the maiden with her own eyes glowing purple while looking very distressed.

A little shaken, Reimu asks "Y-Yukari, what's wrong with-?"

Before she can finish, Yukari shouts "why didn't you contact me? Reimu, what the hell were you thinking?"

Reimu seems very confused and her mind is about to go back to try and figure out what is wrong, but the sound of the clashing swords keeps her mind from drifting.

Yukari looks seriously into Reimu's eyes, then says "that man, Reimu! Did he do something? Are you still pure?"

Reimu gasps, then blushes and says "he-he's gone into hiding, thanks to Rika."

Yukari releases Reimu and places her right hand on her own chest, breathing hard and saying "bless that child! Reimu..."

Again, Yukari looks distressed at Reimu and says "I don't care if it's winter, night, day, the end of the damned world, if you come across that man again, you summon me immediately!"

Reimu realizes Yukari isn't joking, her eyes revealing true concern, for once, and before she asks, Yukari says "you know how. Just think of me, call my name, force a gap, Reimu, whatever the hell you have to do, you call me!"

Reimu quickly asks "if you're so worried, why don't you hunt him down yourself?"

Yukari sighs, then says "winter is almost here, and I'm already feeling spent. Just remember to summon me, and I'll do whatever I can, but don't face that man alone, Reimu. Rika... keep her close to you at all times! Don't forget!"

Normally, this is the time when Yukari would go back to her usual self and joke around, but this time even Reimu feels urgency and fear from her, so she just nods before saying "I won't forget."

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in the farthest ends of Gensokyo, where animals and nature seem to do their best to keep away, Ail, who has is Yozoragan mode still active, lands on a massive white rock that looks like a large mountain to him, and looks as though it's ready to crumble.

He suddenly summons a short sword made of light from his bracelet, then says "you villains are all the same. Cowards that just run away at the sight of a grater force...", then he chortles and whispers "or girls... pfft."

Somehow, Damien is already standing behind Ail with his hood on, his staff already on hand, and its black blades with the blood-red cracks revealed.

He raises his hand to point at Ail, his hood pushes itself back with the force of some sudden strong wind gusts, then says "laugh all you want, boy. I'll let you have that much before your death!"

There is a blinding flash, and the sound of blades colliding; the light quickly dims and now Ail is pushing his sword straight at Damien's face with all his might, and Damien snarls as he pushes Ail's sword back with the blade of his staff, then they push each other back, only to rush straight back to each other, both aiming at each other's necks.

Ail switches he target, and tries to cut down Damien's left leg, but Damien flips in time and manages to swing his staff at Ail's foot, but Ail jumps and tries at full-body swing with his sword as he falls back down, but Damien manages to block the attack with his staff, then kicks Ail away, though by the time he flips back on to his feet, Ail is already shooting light-blue lasers at him.

Damien gets grazed by one of the beams, then snarls as he looks at Ail, then shoots a large barrage of black fireballs.

Ail flaps his ethereal dragon wings and fizzles a large chunk of the demonic fireballs, then he covers himself up with the wings, and the rest of the fireballs seem to get absorbed into them.

Ail channels the absorbed fireballs down his left arm, then aims that energy at Damien, and fires a massive black fireball that moves considerably fast, even when it's so massive in size.

Damien opens his eyes wide and jumps away from his own attack right before it strikes him. Ail laughs and asks "what's the matter? Can't take your own medicine?"

Angry, Damien pushes himself to his feet and reveals a spell card from under his glove and says "you insolent piece of trash, I'll make you pay!"

Ail raises his left hand, pointing his index finger up and clicking his tongue, then stops, pulls a spell card from his pocket, and with a wicked smirk on his face, he says "me fist. Dragon Sign, Blue Dragon Claw!"

Both of Ail's arms get engulfed in blue fire that quickly take the shape of dragon claws, then he rushes toward Damien and unleashes two hundred punches in three seconds, and each punch sends a trail of small blue fireballs in straight lines.

Damien manages to flip backward to avoid the direct attacks but, corners himself over the edge of the rock, then sweats when he sees the many blue fireballs flying his way, and although they all fly in straight lines, they aren't positioned so straight, forcing him to zigzag between fireballs.

Ail laughs, then says "surprised? A gift from a wise friend of mine from the dragon's paradise!"

Before Ail attacks again, Damien fires a smaller version of his Demonic Magicanon, forcing Ail to use the dragon's arms to protect himself, then shouts "Chaos Sign, Fetus of God!"

Ail gasps, then shouts "what the HELL are you doing?"

Damien only laughs as his spell activates, and his card becomes a small black orb with demonic energy.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the back of the Hakurei Shrine, on the shrine's porch are Mima, Suika and Remilia, who cheer for Youmu, and Reimu, Yukari, Marisa and Hatate, who cheer for Rika, though Yukari seems to fall asleep very suddenly, then wakes up as suddenly.

Inside the arena, Rika and Youmu move extremely fast, colliding blades and backing away, shooting danmaku petals and bolts, then attacking with their swords again.

They jump to the air and meet in the center of their jump, swing their blades as fast as they can, then land back on the ground away from each other without a single cut on either.

They turn around, flashing a spell card at each other, then Youmu smiles and loudly says "Ghost Sword, Fasting of the Young Gaki!"

Youmu flies as high as she can, and using her Roukanken, and her insane speeds, the cuts a line in mid-air, from where blue petal bullets circle around before showering down on Rika.

Meanwhile, Rika seems to concentrate for a moment, then suddenly opens her eyes and shouts "Thunder Signs, Indignation no Shouhou Jin'Eizan"

Rika sheathes her family sword to hold her thunder sword with both hands, then takes flight and cuts the air with it, drawing lines and arcs on the air that turn to small lightning orbs that fly straight toward Youmu, though Youmu's own danmaku works like the perfect shield against Rika's own.

While Youmu focuses on protecting herself, Rika raises her thunder sword to the air and chants "I, who stand in the full light of the heavens command thee, who opens the gates of Hell. Come forth, divine lightning!"

A massive bolt of lightning falls on Rika's sword and gets absorbed into it, then it channels itself into Rika's body.

With a smile on her face and with her eyes looking as though small lightning snakes are wriggling in there, Rika flies straight at Youmu while unsheathing her family sword and channeling lightning on to it.

Youmu gasps, and moving almost as fast as Rika, she flies down after cutting another straight line in the air, leaving Rika to hopefully crash against her danmaku.

To Youmu's dismay, Rika flies right through the bullets, missing them by inches, then flies straight down to her, shooting many fast and consecutive lightning orbs, making Youmu shriek and run away, while leaving lines left by her sword near the ground, hoping her danmaku will stop Rika.

Youmu stops running to look behind her, but fails to see Rika, even after her petal bullets disperse.

She looks around and thinks "wait, she was just there."

She looks at the spectators at the shrine's porch and notices they are all snickering amongst themselves.

She scratches her head while tilting it sideways, then says "well, they seem to be having fun."

Without her realization, Rika is standing right behind her with a mischievous smile and pointing her finger at the half ghost.

On the tip of said finger is a small concentration of the channeled electricity, and doing her best to suppress her laughter, Rika pokes the back of Youmu's neck, making her jump and scream while her silver hair stands on end, her body turns transparent for brief moments, revealing her bones, and although the same happens to her ghost half, there is only a wisp inside of it.

Youmu falls to the ground face-first, and as she gets up, a small lightning bolt courses through her hair.

While the half-ghost gets up, looking confused, Rika places her swords and hands behind herself, bends down slightly, then says "miss Youmu, you need to pay more attention."

Youmu looks at Rika, then scowls, pouts, turns her head away, then says "th-that was a freebie! I won't go as easy on the next spell!"

With a smile on her face, Rika jumps into her golden gate, exchanges her thunder sword for her earth sword, then appears away from Youmu, smiling while happily saying "alright then, don't hold back."

Youmu smiles as she gets back up, then looks at Rika and says "alright, no holding back!"

* * *

Back with Ail and Damien, Damien's black orb increases in size, this one looking bigger than the one he used at the village.

Ail takes two steps back, cancelling his own spell, and increasing the power on the short sword of light, then stands on the other edge of the rock to wait for Damien's attack.

When The massive demonic energy orb rises to the air, Ail can see the insane amount of power being used by Damien, watching as he closes his eyes to focus on keeping the spell from dispelling.

Damien suddenly opens his eyes, but doesn't speak, and the massive orb starts breaking apart and showering Ail with large meteor-sized black fireballs that come accompanied by large danmaku dragons made of smaller black flames.

Ail gasps at the horrible sight; he knows he is incapable of dodging and attack like that, so his mind starts to break.

Somehow, the image of Budou and Sanae appear right before his eyes, both smiling at him and saying "come back in one piece, ok?", then disappear.

Ail calms down, smiles and chuckles to himself, then all the symbols on his bracelet begin to glow in unison, and something inside his boots beeps.

He looks up at the attack, which is just a few feet away, smiles, then flies straight toward it.

As though being possessed, Ail nimbly flies through the massive barrage, grazing through the fireballs and danmaku dragons as though it was a mere game.

When the meteor-like fireballs touch the ground, they explode and become black petal-shaped bullets that fly scattered toward Ail, who just moves around with a smile on his face while moving nimbly through the bullets.

Finally, after the massive orb becomes nothing, a giant dragon made of the same fireballs takes its place, roars ferociously, then quickly aims to eat Ail in one gulp.

As the dragon stretches his neck, a massive sword of light that brightens the sky appears to the dragon's left, and with just one swing it cuts the dragon's neck, dispelling the creature and turning it to nothing.

Damien's spell is defeated, but instead of complaints, as Ail flies back down, and his sword of light slowly shrinking back to its normal size, he finds Damien on his knees, doing his best to catch his own breath.

Ail stares at him with anger in his eyes, but instead of killing him, he calls off his sword and opens a red gap behind the man.

He walks to Damien, intent on kicking him like a ball into the gap, then says "I was granted permission to send you to a lovely world of demons and darkness. I am sure you'll like it there. Now, goodbye, mister Damien."

The young man is unable to reply, still trying to catch his breath, but the moment Ail winds up the kick, he manages to get on his feet and runs toward the left edge of the rock.

Before he reaches the edge, however, Yuki, the blonde fire which, whose name ironically means Snow, flies toward the rock from beneath it and scowls at Damien.

The boy stops on his tracks, opening his eyes wide and starting to tremble a bit as he tries to pull his body away from the girl, then Yuki points at him and asks "so, are you that Guzman guy?"

She looks at Ail and says "don't worry, I got your back, skinny."

Ail looks down his body and asks himself "skinny?"

Yuki approaches Damien, thinking she's looking at Guzman, then stands sideways, tucks her stomach, expands her chest, pulls on her shirt, then asks "tell me, am I hot, or what?"

Damien's eyes tremble as he looks at Yuki, who forcefully shows her features to him while rapidly blinking her eyes and pursing her lips.

Damien screams so loud, the vibration makes the massive white rock tremble and crack, then he runs with all his might straight into Ail's gap, and with a confused and shocked face, Ail closes his gap and stares at Yuki in disbelief.

Yuki stares back at Ail with an equally confused face, then asks "was it something I said?"

Ail stares back at Yuki for a little longer, then suddenly starts to chuckle, then progresses to laugh heartily, his laugh echoing far and wide along with Yuki's complaints, then the massive rock crumbles beneath their feet without warning.

After the smoke from the rock clears, instead of laugher and complaints, only moans and groans form both Ail and Yuki can be heard echoing in the wind.

* * *

Back at the Hakurei Shrine, Rika's hand glow with a yellow aura, then she punches the ground three times, raising three pillars, each larger than the last, then she takes her earth sword and cuts through each pillar as fast as she can, sending fast pieces of stone at Youmu, then quickly repeating the process.

Youmu smiles as she uses her sword to cut each and every stone piece in half, while her ghost half shoots white petal-shaped bullets at Rika in straight lines of five.

The pillars protect Rika from the ghost's attack, then she cuts through them again, sending them to Youmu, so she can break them again.

From the shrine, Mima cups her hands around her mouth and shouts "hey~! Cut that crap and fight already~! You've been doing that for five minutes!"

Rika and Youmu both turn to face Mima wish sheepish smiles and pink cheeks, and while rubbing the back of their heads, they say at the same time "heh heh, sorry~", then fly to the air, where they swing their swords against each other at impossible speeds.

Youmu's ghost half tries a sneak attack and aims to tackle Rika while she defends against Youmu's attacks, but the shrine maid sways to the right just in time, then Youmu ends up hitting her ghost half with the hilt of her sword, thus feeling the blow in the back of her own head.

Rika giggles and says "miss Youmu, you really need to be more careful."

Youmu lifts her head while frowning and blushing, then says "I'll need to be more careful around you", then pulls a spell card from her left pocket.

Rika twirls as she lands on the ground, then pulls a spell card, smiles, then says "come and get me! Earth Sign, Ressaishouha!"

Rika flips in the air with a wide smile on her face, and as she lands again, she unsheathes her earth sword and strikes the ground hard with its broad side, cracking the ground underneath it, then she lifts her sword and many boulders fly straight at Youmu.

The half ghost has no choice but to land after narrowly dodging the small boulders, then observes Rika as she flips again and repeats her attack, sending more boulders at her the second time.

While she dodges the boulders, she watches as Rika flips in the air again to repeat the attack, then smiles when she realizes she can counter this attack.

After flipping around to dodge the second wave of boulders, Youmu lifts her spell card and loudly says "Sword Skill, Flashing Cherry Blossoms!"

Rika sends another wave of boulders at Youmu, but the young half ghost rushes toward her so fast, she looks like a blur, then passes by Rika, narrowly avoiding tripping on the rising boulders, then slides to a stop while sheathing her sword and turning around.

Rika blinks twice, thinking "what? She didn't do a thing. Wait, what's this feeling?"

Before Rika knows what happens, she screams as she is struck hard to the air by consecutive cherry blossom danmaku blasts.

Rika finally falls on her back on the ground, and as she sits back up, rubbing her head and looking at Youmu's mischievous smirk, she growls inwardly and says "fine, now we're even!"

Youmu smiles and asks "NOW who's being careless?"

From the shrine's porch, the familiar whimsical voice of Yuyuko reaches Youmu as she says "well done Youmu~! Don't let your guard down!"

Youmu and Rika smile when they see Yuyuko forcing herself to sit between Reimu and Yukari, then Youmu nods to Rika and says "alright! Round three!"

Rika gets up on her feet, then enters her golden gate again, switching her earth sword for her wind sword, then says "I won't make it easy for you!"

Youmu smirks, then says "I would be insulted if you did."

* * *

Back at the Human Village, inside Keine's school, while Keine gives her class, Mokou sits close by in case she needs help, while Kasen quietly observes from the classroom's entrance.

Keine turns to write to the blackboard, and just as she presses the chalk on to it, her body starts trembling and she falls backward, and if it wasn't for Mokou's quick reaction, she would have hit her head hard against her own desk.

The young children murmur amongst themselves, while Keine tries to speak to tell them they are dismissed, but Kasen steps up, then grabs the book on Keine's desk.

She looks at Keine and Mokou, then says "don't you worry, I think I can continue for you."

The children immediately moan loudly, complaining about their missed chance of escape, and Kasen looks at them in disbelief and angrily says "whoa, whoa, what's this? Complaining about learning and reflecting on the past? No wonder you are all dying so young!"

The children all gasp after Kasen's harsh words, then the hermit continues "you there, in front! Don't slouch! Keep your back straight, or you'll end up like an old hunch-back! And you in the back, laughing at other's misfortunes is just a sign of immaturity!"

Kasen gets closer to the desks and says "honestly, with humans acting like this, it's just impossible for you to even grasp the concept of extending one's own lifespan! All of you dying so young and... HEY, are you snickering back there? Not ONE of you would last a day out there in the wild with THAT attitude!"

Keine can see the miserable look on her student's faces, then smiles as she thinks this punishment is well-deserved, seeing as they all seem so uninterested in her class, and often fall asleep during her lectures.

Kasen grabs a young girl with long brown hair by her ear, and while pulling on it, she says "and what kind of lady spreads her legs out like that in front of men!"

She notices the boys are all staring, then she lets go of the girl's reddened ear, then she gasps and angrily says "well, the NERVE! Keine-sensei, are you seeing this? Gentlemen don't stare at ladies like praying hawks! Gentlemen will offer help to a lady in distress, and it's only common decency for those gentlemen to look away when a lady is in a shameless predicament!"

While Kasen continues nagging, Mokou looks at Keine's surprised face with an bored and annoyed face, then says "boy, that girl is a real nag, isn't she? I mean, just look at her go, she's already nagged to the entire class, and she's still going."

A piece of chalk flies straight to Mokou's forehead and breaks upon impact, also pushing the immortal's head back for a second.

When Mokou recovers, she shouts "hey you nag, you almost made me drop Keine!"

Kasen now stands right in front of Mokou's face and says "and you, miss immortal! Just because you are immortal doesn't mean you are without faults! In fact, you cheated! You became immortal through unnatural means! Immortality is gained through sacrifice, hard work, repentance, enlightment! And stop slouching! Just because you have an immortal body, doesn't mean you're going to carelessly ignore it!"

Keine smiles, springs on her feet, then happily says "thank you~! I've been telling her the same thing so many times!"

Kasen looks at Keine and says "I know. Look at that hair of hers! It's dirty and full of split-ends! She's never going to catch a husband like that!"

Mokou's face turns deep red from her embarrassment, but before she can complain, Keine happily says "alright, class is dismissed. Don't forget today's lesson, alright."

While the young humans leave, Kasen loudly adds "remember, reflecting on the past helps extend your life."

While the building empties, Mokou raises her hand and points at Kasen and angrily says "you fiend, I demand we have a danmaku battle right no-"

Mokou's challenge is completely ignored as Kasen and Keine smile at each other, giggle, then Keine says "thank you very much for your help!"

Mokou stutters, then shouts to try to get the girl's attention, but she realizes she is being ignored when Kasen looks at her with a smile, waves, then says "and thanks for helping me with the class, miss Mokou. I would have been in trouble back there if it weren't for you."

Mokou's eyes seem to hide under he own hair as she stares in disbelief at Kasen, unable to reply, then Kasen casually leaves the classroom and waves at Mokou and Keine before leaving.

Keine sighs, then says "it was refreshing seeing someone else give the class."

Mokou grumbles "what class?"

Keine continues "ah, and it was so nice of you, Mokou. Really, you have been such a big help. Thank you."

After saying that, Keine walks closer, then gives Mokou a kiss on the cheek, then makes her way to her bedroom, which is down a corridor away from the classroom and further into the building.

Mokou blushes and places a hand on her cheek, then looks out the window to the sky and desperately asks "what the hell just happen here?"

* * *

Back at the Hakurei Shrine, Rika and Youmu continue their friendly match.

Rika corners Youmu with her speedy attacks, forcing the half ghost to back away while blocking rapid sword slashes.

Youmu's ghost half suddenly rushes Rika, forcing her so dash backward as fast as she can, then Rika takes this chance and throws her wind sword.

As it spins in the air, it glows green and separates into three glowing blades, cutting off Youmu's escape, but the half ghost manages to use her own swords to deflect the attack, sending Rika's sword to the air and allowing Rika to jump over the ghost half and grab it before it falls down again.

Youmu and her ghost half regroup, then she smiles at Rika and says "that's pretty good. For a moment there, I thought I had lost."

Rika smiles back, flashing a spell card while saying "well, it's not over yet."

Youmu now has a spell card on her hand, and while smiling at Rika, she says "alright, last spell. May the best girl win."

Rika and Youmu smirk at each other for a moment, then lunge at each other, attacking at insane speeds, making even Reimu feel a little dizzy while trying to keep up, then they separate and raise their spell cards.

Youmu loudly says "This is it! Hell Realm Sword, 200 Yojana in one Slash!"

At the same time, Rika loudly says "Wind Sign, Neppa Senpuujin!"

Youmu starts zigzagging around the arena, giving Rika some trouble keeping up, while Rika sheathes her sword and charges it with wind energy, making the sheath glow green.

Youmu's ghost half starts shooting massive orbs of energy, while Youmu runs around them and cuts them into small pieces, making hundreds of smaller red orbs.

Meanwhile, Rika swings her sword and sheathes it so fast, her hand can barely be seen moving, yet a large wind blade rushes through the arena, trailing some green wind petals with it, forcing Youmu to slow down to avoid being hit.

Rika suddenly moves to the left, narrowly avoiding a shower of orbs headed her way, then repeats the attack, sending a second wind blade.

From the porch, Reimu manages to make her voice louder than the others, saying "come on Rika! You can win this!"

Yuyuko giggles and also manages to make her voice louder than the small crowd, saying "come on Youmu~! Show us the fruits of your training!"

Rika continues to move around the arena and shoots more wind blades, almost matching Youmu in speed, while Youmu continues to run to Rika whenever she sees a chance, while cutting down any bullet headed her way, even if not her own.

Rika smirks and thinks "I got her!", while Youmu smirks as well and thinks "she's mine!"

Rika and Youmu move around, hoping to get the upper hand, then stop at opposing sides and scream at the same time.

Without realizing it, Rika positions herself right where her next wind blade is heading, while Youmu strops right where the last massive concentration of red orbs is headed.

Both girls freeze, and scream after having ended up on the wrong end of their own attacks.

The match ends with the girl's screams and a loud bang, then Reimu and Yuyuko stand up, Yuyuko raises her left hand, while Reimu raises her right, looking as though they are ready to throw a dual attack as their arms seem to touch, then they both shout at the same time "Match over! It's a draw!"

Mima, Suika, Remilia, Marisa, Hatate, Tenshi and Aya stare at the girls with confused faces, while Yukari sleeps.

Reimu's barrier rapidly vanishes, allowing the smoke inside to lift and be taken away by the sudden gust of wind that comes from inside, then the girls can see Rika lying on her back with spinning eyes and a goofy smile, and Youmu lying on her face and raising her seat to the air, while her ghost half floats to her right.

After seeing the girls in that state, even the spectators, except the still sleeping Yukari, face palm along with Reimu and Yuyuko.

The ghost princess and maiden look at each other while rolling their hands through their faces, then sigh and say at the same time "so incorrigible."

* * *

Afternoon at the Moriya Shrine, inside the living room, Sanae taps Ail's head repeatedly with her gohei, while Budou glares at him from across the room, all while Ail, whose hands are covered with bandages, stares angrily at Yuki, whose neck and left leg are wrapped in bandages.

Sanae angrily says "you idiot, idiot, fat half youkai idiot!", while Budou angrily says "really papa, what if you were seriously hurt!"

Ail ignores the girls' angry comments, then looks at Yuki and asks "what the hell were you thinking? If that was the real Guzman, he would have done terrible things to you!"

Budou hisses at Ail and says "and what if that Guzman got you while you were fighting!", and Sanae adds "not even telling us where you were going, idiot!"

Yuki ignores the girls as they scold Ail and says "relax, it was all a plan!"

Everyone's expression change, Sanae stops hitting Ail, and now all the attention lies on Yuki, who smiles and says "you see, when mom learned about this Guzman, we came up with this plan to have him chase after either me or Mai back to Makai, and there we would ambush him and have him for dinner."

Ail, Sanae, Budou, and now Suwako, who is mysteriously sitting to Budou's left, narrow their eyes while staring at Yuki.

The Makaian smirks, then says "and I don't mean as a guest, mind you."

Ail raises his right hand, and using Shinki's blessing, he opens a gap that goes straight to Makai City, then says "well, you go in there and tell miss Shinki that we are all VERY grateful for her concern, but Guzman won't fall for that. He cannot be underestimated, not even, no, ESPECIALLY when you are greater in numbers. He'll take that overconfidence and use it against you, full force!"

Yuki scoffs as she turns her face away, then angrily says "fine, we won't help!"

She turns her face to Ail, pulls down on her left lower eyelid, sticks out her tongue, then says "see if I care, idiot!"

Ail simply sighs, while Yuki stretches her mouth and sticks out her tongue even farther, then jumps into the gap, which Ail closes immediately after.

Sanae now grabs Ail by his neck and pulls him close to her rage-filled face and says "you~! You didn't take care of yourself! I'm going to k-!"

Kanako walks into the living room from the bathroom corridor and loudly says "Sanae~! Ail~! You two need to get going to the resort before it gets dark!"

A golden washtub mysteriously drops from the ceiling and lands on Kanako's head to hard, it breaks through, though the goddess simply scratches her head and looks around, as though nothing ever happened.

Sanae's face completely changes to a love-filled and amorous face, her chocking grip becomes a soft and playful hold, then she giggles, kisses Ail's nose, then says "I'm going to kiss you! Now let's get going."

Hiding the shock, so as not to make her mad again, Ail wonders what is going on inside Sanae's head at the moment.

Budou, on the other hand, still looks a little angry, so he smiles at her and says "look, it was alright. There was no way Guzman could sneak up on me, and Damien is gone for good. Come on, smile already. I already told you, these wounds were form the rock after it broke, not the battle."

Budou lets out a hmph, but after Ail smiles at her for a little longer, she gives in and lets out a smile, then says "fine, but if you do that again, I'll kick you in the chin!"

Ail sweats and smiles sheepishly, then chuckles and says "err, sure, I'll make sure to take even better care."

Budou smiles at Ail, lifts her leg, points at her foot, then says "good, cuz these nails aren't just for show."

* * *

At the Hakurei Shrine, the beaten up Youmu and Rika weakly smile as they prepare a large meal for their masters and their guests.

From the living room, they can hear how rowdy the guests are, probably drunk from Suika's sake.

While Youmu cuts some vegetables, she peeks at Rika to her right and says "hey, that was a nice match."

Rika giggles and places half a sack of rice into one large pot, then says "indeed. Honestly, having a friendly match was very refreshing, miss Youmu."

Youmu chuckles, then says "yeah, it's a good way to learn a little more about yourself... and those around you."

Rika and Youmu laugh for a bit before quietly resuming their cooking, and for a while, all that is heard in the kitchen is their knives, the fire and the voices of the rowdy guests in the living room, particularly Mima's and Marisa's, who seem to by trying to sing, though completely off-tone.

Youmu breaks the silence by smirking and suddenly saying "you got lucky back there."

Rika half-smiles and quickly replies "I had you right where I wanted you."

Youmu chuckles, then says "you wish... but you know something, miss Rika. You are good. And I don't mean just as a swordswoman, but as a person... and, um..."

Rika looks at Youmu with a bit of surprise showing on her face, but quickly smiles and says "I really had fun today, and as long as it's a friendly one, I'd love to have another match with you."

Youmu and Rika turn to face each other, and with smiles on their faces, they both shake hands, raising them to chest height while knocking their elbows together.

Rika's sword quickly glows bright red, startling both girls, then quickly dims down.

Rika grabs her sword and looks at the jewel on the hilt, looking a bit worried, but quickly calms down and thinks "oh, that's right."

She looks at Youmu's worried face, who asks "what was that?", then thinks "this girl is now my rival and friend. I'm so glad."

Youmu gets even more worried when she notices a tear rolling down Rika's kind, smiling face, then asks "oh no, is it something bad, miss Rika?"

Rika giggles, then pats Youmu on the head and says "on the contrary! Thank you for thinking of me as your friend. This means a lot to me, miss Youmu."

At first, Youmu is both confused and annoyed by Rika, but being patted on the head makes her feel good, and with a pink face and feeling slightly embarrassed, Youmu looks away from Rika and says "um, c... could you please stop that?"

Rika giggles as she pulls her hand away, then both girls stare at each other and smile again, though their smiles are cut short when they realize the food is starting to burn.

They panic and rush to fix their mistake, and now seem to be working in overdrive.

At the living room, the party is suddenly brought to a halt when Keine and Mokou, who is helping Keine keep on her feet again, enter the shrine, Mokou looking slightly embarrassed, while Keine looks rather content.

Reimu approaches her guests, then asks "well, this is a rare sight. What brings you two to the shrine?"

Keine looks at the embarrassed immortal and giggles after her face turns bright red, then turns to Reimu and says "I came to tell you, there's going to be a lunar eclipse tonight, and Mokou is here to help me deliver the message."

Reimu looks a bit surprise, then says "ah, this should be a very enjoyable evening."

Keine smiles widely, then asks "can we stay and watch it here on the shrine? The sight here should be spectacular."

Reimu sighs and smiles, but before she calls Rika, the maid is already bowing behind Reimu and says "don't worry my lady, there is plenty of food, and I can prepare some drinks and snacks of you like."

Keine giggles nervously, then points at the shrine's gate and says "um, well, you might want to get more... because... well..."

Rika, Reimu, Yuyuko, Remilia, Marisa and Mima all peek out toward the front from the shrine's left entrance, then watch how about fifteen villagers head straight to the donation box and pray to the Hakurei god.

Before the shocked Reimu can speak, Keine giggles and says "they wanted to come to the shrine where miss Rika works."

Reimu grabs Rika by her shoulders, gives her a long kiss on the left cheek, and with a glint on each eye she exclaims "you are a JEWEL!"

* * *

Meanwhile at the Kappa-pa resort's entrance, just before reaching the gates, Sanae stops in place and shivers, then grumbles to herself "I feel a disturbance in the faith."

Ail, who is carrying two brown cases for himself and three massive white trunks with vine designs for Sanae, manages to peek his face from the left of the luggage and asks "did you say something sweetie?"

Sanae's face turns back to her usual, cheery self, then says "nothing. Come on, we're almost there!"

Ail grunts and manages to say "right. Just a... wait a minute!"

Realizing what he is doing, Ail opens up a gap and throws the luggage in there, then dusts his hands while saying "there. Much lighter now", then closes the gap.

Sanae, and the lighter Ail make their way to the large gates that lead into the resort's apartments, and are surprised when a blue beam falls from the ceiling, and from where it lands on the ground in front of them, a blue ring slowly reveal a perfect hologram of Nitori to greet them, however, instead of a happy kappa, they see the image of an exhausted girl with red, baggy, sleepy eyes, a wrinkled face, and from the looks of it, it's as if she's been crying for a long time.

Ail and Sanae gasp at the sight, then Sanae concernedly asks "Nitori, are you alright?"

Ail quickly adds "did someone hurt you?"

Nitori stares somberly at the guests, then realizes her appearance isn't very bright, yet, as if not even caring, she just swings her left arm around and says "hey, relax. I'm just sleepy."

Ail and Sanae look at each other with worry, but before they ask, there is a quick beep, then Nitori continues "ah, I see your tickets in your pockets! Excellent! Welcome to the Kappa-pa Resort! Please enjoy your stay here!"

As the gates open up for Ail and Sanae, Ail asks "Nitori, are you sure you're alright?"

Nitori giggles and says "you are not here for worrying, you are here for relaxing! I'll leave you with Julia! She'll lead you to your rooms. Hope to see you real soon!"

With that, a large blue ring appears above Nitori and seems to consume her as it slowly goes down until it touches the ground, then turns red as it slowly rises back up, revealing the elegant blonde woman with the green eyes and red business dress.

Julia bows after seeing the guests, then lifts her right hand, pointing inside toward the apartments, and says "please, follow me to you rooms mister Ail and miss Sanae, and welcome to the Kappa-pa Resort. I do hope you enjoy your stay here. If you need anything, you may call any of the service-bots at any moment, so you let US take care of all your needs while you are here."

Both Ail and Sanae look very impressed at the woman, then Ail asks "such advanced technology. How did Nitori do all this?"

Sanae looks around for a moment, then says "I am sure it's because of that hell raven. The one Kanako tricked into eating that god."

Ail looks around, admiring everything, even the holographic night sky on the ceiling, then says "nuclear power is dangerous, but I must admit, it can be amazing when used right."

* * *

From the largest office, Nitori watches through the large glass, as Julia takes Ail and Sanae to their rooms with those somber, baggy eyes.

She sniffles and remembers when several of her kappa friends burst through the office's doors to demand the immediate removal of Guzman.

She remembers how much she pleaded to be trusted, but they all insisted that Guzman is bad news, which is the truth.

Nitori sniffles and turns around to look at the closed door, then says to herself "they're just jealous."

She slowly walks to the large chair and hops on it, then suddenly jumps in place and gasps when she hears a loud knock on the door.

Hesitant, and with a cracking low voice, she asks "wh-who i-is it?"

From the other side of the door, a calm and paused voice replies "it's me. Can I come in?"

Nitori gasps again and recovers her usual bright face, jumps from her chair, runs to the door, and as she opens it, she exclaims "GRAMPA~!"

On the other side of the door is an old hunched man with a long beard, a dried, brown shell on his back, a small bald spot on the crown of his head, and a long, thin white beard that reaches down to the ground and covers his light smile, wearing a long white robe and a golden necklace with a sun medallion around his neck.

The old kappa opens his arms to embrace Nitori, who immediately jumps on him and cries away while her grandfather gently pats the back of her head.

While Nitori repeats "grandpa", the old kappa softly says "Nitori, dear child, what has happened here?"

After some time, Nitori manages to calm down, and while her grandfather sits on her chair, she prepares some tea on a miniature stove that sits on a small table that is placed against the wall to the left of the room.

Nitori sniffles, then asks "why is everyone attacking me, grandpa? What did I do?"

The old kappa plays with his beard as he lightly grunts, then says "I think you know the answer to that, child."

Sounding desperate, Nitori quickly replies "but he's a good man! He saved me, and he says I'm his friend! He's not bad, grandpa!"

The old kappa smiles as he looks at his granddaughter, then says "you have a big heart Nitori, but I'm afraid turning a blind eye to this may lead you to a path of pain, and I'm afraid I won't be able to help you then."

Nitori sobs as she pours the green tea into a cup, filling it to the brim and almost spilling it, and with a cracking voice she manages to say "I'll prove it. He's a good person, a very kind man!", then starts to sob again.

Before she realizes it, her grandfather is already beside her, patting her back and saying "there, there, no more crying. If it makes you feel any better, I'll stay around here for a few days. I'll observe his behavior, then you'll have a witness to your claims."

Nitori opens her eyes wide, turns to her grandfather, and with an excited look on her face, she asks "r-really? Will you really do that?"

The old kappa slowly nods, then Nitori smiles brightly as she jumps on him an gives him another tight hug, saying "thank you, thank you, thank you! Y-you'll see! He really is good. He... he will help me remodel the resort!"

The old kappa hugs her granddaughter and smiles, but doesn't reply and simply continues to comfort the distraught girl.

* * *

Meanwhile, while Julia opens the door to Ail and Sanae's room, then bows and begins her routinary monologue.

As she does, On the adjacent building across the now renamed "Hot Tub Plaza", Guzman walks out of his room, but immediately takes notice of Ail and jumps back inside the room, keeping his door slightly open.

He watches with both excitement and dread as he says to himself "AIL! He's here! Grr, I'm still shaken form that demonic girl's attack, and if he discovers me now, I'm through! Shit, I better start getting ready in case this gets ugly... but..."

He looks to the rooms below Ail and Sanae's, then sees Yuka, Kurumi and Elly being escorted to their rooms by a robot in Julia's old body.

Guzman's expression quickly changes to undisguised desire as he stares at the girls, then says "well, what have we here? I can't believe my eyes. For once, there is someone here worth looking at!"

He suddenly looks back up, just as Ail enters the room right after Sanae, then he growls and says "but that bastard is here! This makes things complicated! Perhaps... Perhaps there is some way to avoid him. Yes, that gorgeous angel will be mine, I don't care whether that idiot is here or not. And maybe, if I get lucky... I could kill him in his sleep."

As he contemplates his plans in his mind over and over, he starts to laugh to himself, and without hesitation, he makes his way out of his room and to the baths, keeping in mind Ail, and the sight of that girl he liked so much.

Meanwhile, Ail and Sanae settle in their room, where Ail opens a gap that spits out their luggage, making it fall on a neat pile.

As Ail looks with shock at their luggage, Sanae sits on the bed, smiles, then drops on her back and says "ooh, so soft!"

Ail pokes the luggage and makes it tumble down in disarray, making himself look even more surprised, then he says "um... soft. Ah, right, the bed. Um, did you see this just... never mind."

Sanae sits back up on the bed's edge and pats her right side, inviting Ail to sit next to her, and just as he sits beside her, she wraps an arm around his neck and says "well, here we are. The two of us, alone. What kind of naughty things we could do I wonder?"

Ail's face turns bright red in just seconds, and after stuttering like an idiot, he finally smiles sheepishly and says "n-now Sanae, that's not appropriate of a shrine maiden."

Sanae kisses his cheek, then giggles and says "I'm a wind priestess, but still, it's worth it if it makes you look so cute."

Ail's face turns even redder as he scrunches up, then mumbles "umm... th-thanks."

Sanae giggles as she suddenly jumps on him, kisses his lips, then says "so cute. I'm gonna eat you up!"

While Sanae literally eats Ail away with kisses, Ail tries to push her off at first, but gives up and starts returning those kisses.

While they have their quiet and relaxing time alone, they are unaware the danger that lurks so close, and of the events occurring outside the safety and comfort of the underground resort.

* * *

To be continued...

* * *

Damien wakes up with his face on the ground, and while her recovers, he notices the ground underneath him is hot and red.

With a blurry sight, he thinks "what... what the hell?"

As he slowly gets himself up on his feet, he realizes his skin feels as though it's burning, but as soon as the wind hits him, the burn becomes a powerful chill that makes even him feel the sting.

He looks around and admires the dark brown trees with black leaves that ooze blood, the black sky with poisonous clouds that hint the color blue, and the endless red wasteland that surrounds the rest of that world.

From behind him, a colossal demon with large black horns, long white hair, red skin and hooves for feet roars and loudly says "welcome to MY world, you measly little demon! I am your new master, and from now on, you will do as I command. Oh, and if you want to breath, heh he, you'll need to pay a fine."

Damien stands up straight, looking up at the demon with a demonic smile on his own face, and as his eyes start glowing bright red, he shouts "I think you got it backwards, you worm! _I_ am your master, and YOU, you pathetic excuse for a demon, are my slave!"

Furious, the lord of this Makai grabs Damien, squeezing him with his fingers while roaring, then gets the little demonic man close to his own colossal face, and says "how dare you speak to me that way! You will die as you are! A mere, powerless worm without a reason to even be alive!"

The monster opens his mouth and puts Damien inside, and the moment he closes his mouth to chew, a massive black and purple beam, twice the size of Marisa's Dragon Meteor, breaks its way through the monster's mouth, followed quickly by Damien himself.

As the lord of the lands roars and thrashes about in pain while holding his mouth, Damien laughs as he prepares an orb of dark demonic energy so massive, it dwarfs the massive demon in size, and with a demonic smile on his face, Damien shouts "NO SPELL CARDS, FULL POWER~!", then throws the orb straight at the massive demon.

Giant black fire wyverns follow the orb, and after one last powerful roar from the land's master, everything settles down.

Soon, hoards of demons flock to the source of their master's scream, while their lands start to shake violently as they take a new shape.

Damien stands on the left leg of the land's former master, the only remaining limb from the creature, then laughs before saying loudly "bow to the new ruler of Makai, Damien~ You are all my servants from this day forth, and together, we will shape this land to MY DESIGN! Anyone who wants out, speak up now, or be horribly disfigured later!"

Damien cackles manically as all the demons flee for their lives, as the land threatens to destroy them while it trembles and reshapes itself to Damien's will.

* * *

Characters, spell cards and scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail and Budou were created by Willie G.R.

Rika Onkamikami was created by Snapshot 2010

Rika's spell cards:

Thunder Sign, "Indignation no Shouou Jin'eizan" "Divine Thunder Assault of Indignation",

Earth Sign, "Ressaishouha" "Crushing Eagle", and

Wind Sign, "Neppa Senpuujin" "Searing Gale", were created by Snapshot 2010

Damien was created by Hydroviper

Damien's spell card:

Chaos Sign, Fetus of God, was created by Hydroviper

SEP 22 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**This took a lot longer than expected. So many things happened that literally put my writing to a stop! Well, hope you enjoyed this LONG chapter.**

***NOTE: I wrote Kasen in on the base of her description on Wikia. If her description changes, I will change her accordingly.**

**SEP 26 2010**

**Change Kasen's description to fit her official description.  
**


	10. Chapter 10

Night at Gensokyo.

Earlier, Keine told Reimu, and the shrine's guests, that there would be a lunar eclipse on this night, and then they all decided to watch it at the shrine.

However, after managing to convince Reimu and the guests, Remilia leads everyone, including the villagers, from the safety of the shrine, to the shores of the Misty lake.

Now Rika and Youmu, who somehow set up a stove made of rocks on one of the clearings next to the shore, have Sakuya's help while making meals and snacks for everyone, and that includes Yuyuko.

Rika manages to grab flour plates on her arms, and after turning away from the stove, she smiles and says "I'll take these to the villagers. Oh, and miss Marisa said she'd like more sake."

As Rika makes her way to the guests, Sakuya angrily replies "miss _Marisa_ can come get the sake herself!"

Youmu quickly replies "make sure to tell her we are PLENTY BUSY!"

Rika sighs, but continues on her way, now carrying a message as well.

The villagers happily thank Rika for her hard work and as she serves them, she thinks "an eclipse. About time too. My last trial should start soon. Hmm, I wonder what it will be this time?"

After serving the fourth and last plate to an modern-looking woman, Rika heads back to Sakuya and Youmu with a determined face, forgetting the message for Marisa and thinking "no matter what, I'll pass this trial! For myself and my lady Reimu!"

Later that night, after every single guest, and cooks, are all comfortable, fed and enjoying the night, Rika walks by herself to a secluded side of the lake shore and sits with her legs picked up under her skirt just at the edge of the lake water.

While she looks at the water's reflection, she hears some "oohs" and "ahhs" from where her mistress and the guests are, and that's when she notices the reflection of the waxing moon as it's already half-covered, and that is when she notices there is a monster staring back at her from the edge of the water.

With a gasp, Rika quickly stands up and unsheathes her sword, ready to fight said creature, but nothing happens.

Concerned for the safety of her mistress and the guests, Rika decides to get closer to try and draw it out, and hopefully kill it before it tries to hurt someone.

As she gets closer to the water again, she thinks "maybe it's friendly. Well, I better find out now."

Slowly, she gets closer to the edge, then she can see the creature peeking up at her, and pointing her sword at the water she shouts "show yourself, creature!"

Rika looks down to the water, waiting patiently for the creature to move, but nothing happens.

She gets closer still, and looks down the water.

The creature looks just like her, only with black skin, the white on its eyes is black, its iris is blood red, and its wings are raven black, and just like Rika, it holds a sword and points it straight at Rika's own.

Suddenly, Rika gasps and backs away from the water, breathing rapidly and heavily, then backs all the way back against a tree.

Her heart beats so fast, she feels it's about to break right through her ribs, and after getting enough air into her system, she whispers "that's me!"

Now her heart feels like it's made its way up to her throat as she thinks "no! I-I've become... I'm a monster! My lady... my friends! Th-they can't... What will they think?"

Rika gets more and more desperate, her heartbeats get louder and faster, then she can hear the warped voice of her dark self whispering sinisterly in her mind "you're mine, child. You are all mine now! And now, it is time to take all that is precious to you... starting with her."

Without actually moving her body, Rika's left hand points straight at Reimu, who's face becomes visibly clear between some bushes as she laughs while talking to Remilia.

Rika trembles after realizing her dark self has control over her body, so out of sheer will, she manages to regain control and reply "n-never! I'll never let you!"

Her dark self quickly replies in a sinister whisper "there's nothing you can do, child. Your body is now mine! It's just a matter of time before it's completely under my control."

Somehow, Rika regains full control of her body and quickly runs away, as far away as she can from all her friends, thinking "no! They can't see me like this, like a monster! They'll hate me! They will all hate me! My lady!"

Her dark self laughs, then says "run, yes, run! Ha ha ha! Save your pathetic little friends while you can! It'll just make the hunt so much more interesting!"

Ignoring the dark voice in her mind, Rika flees as though her worst nightmare is right behind her, when in reality, she has now become her own worst nightmare.

* * *

A few minutes later, at the gathering point at the clearing, while everyone is distracted with the eclipse, drinking and eating, Reimu gets up and decides to look for Rika, thinking of inviting her to join her.

While Reimu looks around the shore, Rika is already, and unknowingly on the back side of the Scarlet Island.

As she looks around with those monstrous eyes, the says to herself "there, I'm good and lost now! You won't be able to hurt ANYONE now!"

Rika's tension rises as she waits for her dark self to answer, but when there is none, she sighs with great relief.

Behind her, the leaves rustle violently, so her tension rises so much, her body stiffens along with her small black wings, and after slowly turning around, she sighs and says to herself "phew, just the wind."

Rika suddenly jumps and squeals in surprise when from right behind her Kimi asks "ara~, shrine maid, what are you doing hiding here?"

Trembling, Rika slowly turns her head toward the dragon youkai and says "i-i-i-it's the... d-d-dragon."

Before Kimi replies to that, from Rika's left, Kali says "hmph, if you think shadow looks good on you, think again! That's MY department."

Rika stops shaking, then manages to say "you have to get away from me, now!"

Kimi gets angry, and immediately replies "hey~! This happens to be MY territory, so you watch that mouth of yours!"

Before she can continue, Rika shakes her head and says "no, no, you don't understand! I'm dangerous... I... I'm..."

Rika's arms fall limp as she slumps and sways to the left, then remains quiet.

Kimi looks at her suspiciously and says "well, you seem to be acting strange, miss. Lucky for you that shrine maiden thinks so highly of you, or I'd..."

While Kali brazenly lifts Rika's skirt, saying "hmm, maybe I should use panties too", Kimi stares at Rika with fright, and in a sudden impulse, she flies away as fast as she can, shouting "MOVE, you butt-head!"

Kali get out from under Rika's skirt and watches as Kimi flees as though terrified of something, then scratches the back of her head, asking herself "huh, wonder what got into her?"

Before she knows what's next, her ears ring with the sounds of various sword slashes, then Rika's sword being sheathed.

Kali turns around, feeling heavier than usual, then looks at Rika as her iris glow red, then asks "what was that?"

Kali's body quickly falls to pieces on the ground, then Rika manages to recover herself, and as she looks around, she realizes what she's done, though it takes some time for it to sink in.

Back at the other side, where the spectators are, Reimu suddenly gasps and feels an abnormal amount of fear, and the urge to cry inconsolably.

As though knowing what's happening, she looks at the back of her right hand and gasps when she sees the wing symbol glowing bright.

Before she can call for help, she feels as though there is a powerful struggle in Rika, so without waiting for another moment, she takes to the air and calls for Rika as loudly as she can, however the partygoers are being too loud, and nobody hears her.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Rika somehow manages to get herself to the Garden of the Sun, where she constantly flies upwards, as though hoping for some miracle to happen.

Finally, filling herself with determination, Rika takes another leap upward and flies with all her might, all the way up Gensokyo's border, which she crashes against, and falls back down.

As she falls, she thinks "that poor girl! When... how did I do that? I've become a monster, I don't deserve to be here! I don't have friends anymore, and worse, I'm more inclined to kill them at first sight. I have to... I have to get out of here! Leave Gensokyo, forever! I may not like it, but at least miss Reimu, and the others will be safe!"

Rika allows herself to fall down without showing a single sign of resistance, thinking "maybe this way is better. This way, nobody will be in danger, this monster that calls herself Rika will not harm another soul, and everyone will be happy."

Rika hears the loud thud she expected, yet she's conscious, and she doesn't seem to feel pain at all.

Slowly she realizes she fell on something soft, and when she opens her black and red eyes, she sees Yuugi Hoshiguma, the oni from the underground, holding her in her arms.

With a smile on her face, Yuugi asks "you are miss Rika, right? Yamame's been talking about you so much, and you do fit the description."

Rika starts to sob, then covers her face with her left forearm as she looks away and cries "so I really am a monster!"

Yuugi quickly panics and says "whoa, whoa, miss, calm down already! What do you mean a monster?"

Rika rolls off Yuugi's arms and falls down to the ground, where she rolls away from the oni, knocking a few flowers down as she does, then stands up with her sword unsheathed.

Pointing her weapon at Yuugi, she threateningly says "you stay away! I'm a monster! I will kill you without hesitation!"

Yuugi stares seriously at Rika, then says "hey, don't talk about yourself that way. From over here, I don't see a monster. Just a really kind girl in a lot of pain. Let me help you out, miss."

Rika sniffles, rubs her nose with the back of her right forearm, grabs her sword with both hands, then says "fine, if you won't listen to me, then I'll have to SHOW you what I mean!"

Yuugi sighs, rubs her forehead under her horn, then says "alright miss. When we are done here, perhaps you'll be able to see what I mean."

Rika trembles, her plan to scare Yuugi away failed, and now she finds herself in a fight she can't escape, no matter how badly she wants to.

* * *

Determined to scare Yuugi away, Rika attacks first, and somehow, she feels faster, and stronger than before, even though she hasn't had a good rest after her match with Youmu.

She's already next to Yuugi and raising her sword, though holding it backwards, then she swings it with all her might, but the cunning oni side-steps to the left and kicks the back of Rika's knee's making her fall to the ground, though Rika quickly rolls backward and back on her feet in no time.

Yuugi smiles, then says "see? You are holding your sword backward, and you hesitated to attack. You are a good girl, miss. Just like Yamame keeps saying."

Rika feels her heart beating fast again, though this time out of anger and despair, then shouts "look at me! Look at what I have become!"

Yuugi smirks and says "so? I have a large horn on my head, but you don't see me trying to ram people with it."

Rika takes the chance to attack once more, turning her sword around again while swinging, left, right and down, though doing this slowly and missing on purpose.

Yuugi ducks to avoid an attack from her right, then grabs Rika by her belly, lifts her up, then quickly tosses her away.

As Rika lands on her feet, Yuugi says "running away I see. Girl, you're doing it wrong! Look, no matter what you look like, you are still yourself, and all your friends will accept you!"

Rika trembles after hearing that, lowers her defenses, then looks at Yuugi with longing in her eyes, then asks "you... you really think it's that easy?"

Yuugi smiles more confidently now, flips her thumb up, then says "c'mon~! That Reimu you care so much about is one of the friendliest ones you'll ever meet. Sure, she's a bit rough around the edges, but so what?"

Rika lowers her sword, her heart slowly settles, then she slowly flaps her wings involuntarily as she says "I... you might be right. A-after all... she's already told me I'm special to her... so..."

Yuugi's smile brightens as she straightens up and places her hands on her waist, then loudly says "that's the spirit! Come on, I'll even come with you."

Yuugi's smile is quickly replaced by a concerned frown when she Realizes Rika is letting her hands hang limp in the air while she arcs her back to make herself looks like a hunch-back.

Yuugi gasps when Rika slightly lifts her head and reveals a pair of glowing red eyes, then asks "whoa, miss Rika, are you alright?"

In an instant, Rika is on top of Yuugi, raising her sword high and ready to strike down hard with its sharp edge.

Yuugi barely manages to dodge the attack, and receives a small cut on her forearm.

With an eager smile on her face, Yuugi licks the bit of blood trickling down her arm, then says "hey, whoever you are, leave that girl alone."

With a warped and sinister voice, and an equally sinister smile, Rika replies "I am 'that girl' miss oni."

Yuugi's smile is replaced by a brave stare, and after jumping back against a flowerbed to avoid another sudden attack, Yuugi pulls a spell card and says "time to knock that girl back into sense."

* * *

Rika suddenly runs at Yuugi at full speed, looking like a black blur under the dark night sky, yet somehow, Yuugi manages to clap in time to stop Rika's sword just before it strikes her horn.

Grunting with a confident smile, Yuugi says "you're pretty strong. To cut through my skin so easily, then getting so close to me just like that. I must say, I am impressed."

Rika, with a warped and twisted tone of voice replies "the sight of your blood will give me power. Now DIE~!"

Using a great deal of strength, Yuugi lifts Rika off the ground by clapping her sword tightly, then throws Rika away, rolling backward on the ground, and the moment she's back on her feet, she loudly declares "Shackles Sign, Shackles a Criminal Can't Take Off"

Yuugi surrounds herself and Rika between hundreds of tiny white bullets, then throws large shackles straight at the ghoulish woman, trapping her legs and right arm with them, and making her fall down on her face to the ground.

Yuugi, while still showering the surrounding area with her danmaku, looks down at the dark Rika and sternly says "now I'm certain, you are not Rika. Someone like her wouldn't have fallen so easily to this, and even if she did, she probably would have broken free before touching the ground."

The dark woman in Rika's clothing starts sobbing, making Yuugi feel a bit bad about herself, but she quickly recovers when she realizes dark Rika is just laughing softly.

Narrowing her left eye, Yuugi tosses another ring and asks "hey ghoul, what are you laughing about?"

With a warped voice, dark Rika cackles for a moment, then looks up at Yuugi as the ring wraps around her waist, then says "you FOOL! I AM Rika! Rather, I am all that is dark and negative about her! Now, DIE!"

Yuugi hops away from Rika when the dark girl jerks around very violently, trying to break free from those shackles, then, with a bit of fright on her face, says "hey, stop doing that. You'll break Rika's body!"

Yuugi's eyes fail to lie, the surprise so evident when dark Rika screams loud and breaks free from the shackles with ease, and stands straight on her feet with her sword ready on hand, and long before Yuugi realizes what's next, dark Rika is thrusting her sword right through the left upper side of her shoulder.

Dark Rika places her wicked smiling face right in front of Yuugi's trembling face, then opens her eyes wide with surprise when she hears Yuugi struggling to whisper "F-Four Devas Arcanum... Knockout in Three Steps!"

Dark Rika finds herself being pushed back by countless shard bullets in blue, gets up from the ground to watch with horror as Yuugi scatters light-green shards around her first set of bullets, then stands up but stays put when she finds herself surrounded by about fifty red orbs, while hundreds more spread all around the second set of bullets.

At the center of the attack Yuugi smirks at dark Rika and says "alright lady, time for you to go!"

Just as Yuugi sends the massive concentration of bullets flying, dark Rika makes her sword turn to pure darkness, holds it like a lance, then throws it straight at Yuugi's feet, where a vacuum forms the moment the lance touches the ground and sucks Yuugi in, dragging her to the center of a powerful dark explosion, blasting her hard, making her scream, cancelling the spell and lifting a thick dust cloud.

After everything settles, dark Rika casually walks toward Yuugi, grabs the sword from the ground as she looks at the oni's face as she lies unconscious on the ground, then smiles, raises her sword, then says "even oni fall to my power."

Before she swings her sword to cut Yuugi's head off her shoulders, a woman's voice from behind her gets her attention.

When she looks back, she notices Yuka standing behind her with an ominous and murderous smile as she speaks in a friendly manner, saying "_my, what do we have here? I came here to get some flowers for that bland resort, but instead I find an intruder stealing bodies, breaking my flowers, and about to stain my lands with unwelcomed oni blood. Whatever shall I do?_"

Dark Rika looks back at Yuka as a cold chill runs down her spine, then thinks "shit, this one is dangerous. She's already aiming to kill me... and I can't use any of the elemental swords. Dammit, what should I do?"

Dark Rika stands in place, staring back at Yuka while fear courses down her entire body.

* * *

Yuka continues to smile, narrowing her bloodshot eyes as she keeps them straight on dark Rika, then, in a friendly tone of voice, she says "_so, you took over a body that doesn't belong to you, and just to spite me. Well done! Well done indeed. Now, let's get you straight out of there, so I can make you pay properly for destroying my flowers._"

Dark Rika snorts, then holds her sword with both hands, bends her body, then smiles.

Yuka points her parasol straight at the dark girl and happily says "Original, Master Spark!"

A powerful thick yellow beam, accompanied by at least thirty flower bullets, flies straight at dark Rika, who suddenly takes a spell card from her pocket and quickly calls "Oath Breaker!", then jumps into a purple gate that opens up to her right, then jumps right out of the gate further to the right, narrowly avoiding Yuka's beam, yet having to avoid some flowers that spin like flying saws toward her.

Yuka's smile turns to a frown when she notices the dark ghoul now has four extra swords around her waist, so she turns her beam to the ghoulish girl, but dark Rika jumps to the air in a flash, sheathes the Family Sword, unsheathes two purple blades then lunges straight at the flower youkai.

Yuka doesn't hesitate to cancel her spell and use her artifact parasol to deflect dark Rika's vicious and fast attacks.

Dark Rika laughs, and in that warped and sinister tone of voice of hers, says "you're a fighter, I see, but not fast enough to match me."

Even though dark Rika is running in circles around Yuka, the youkai continues to smile, and in a confident tone of voice, she says "I may be slow, but I make up for it in _strength_!"

As she finishes her sentence, Yuka swings her parasol with all her might, matching dark Rika's sword swing, and with the sheer force of the impact, the right sword flies off the dark girl's grasp and flies away from sight.

Dark Rika looks with shock at her flying sword and misses the glint on Yuka's right eye, then she suddenly finds herself flying backward after Yuka strikes her hard with that parasol of hers.

She lands on her back on the ground, knocking two more sunflowers to the ground, then flips back on her feet and shouts "what the hell is that umbrella made of?"

Yuka chuckles, then says "this 'umbrella', as you so kindly call it, is actually the only flower in Gensokyo that never withers."

Dark Rika chuckles as she says to herself "I see, an artifact weapon. Fine, I'll have to use my own for a bit longer."

Yuka smiles as she asks "what was that dear? I couldn't hear you over the sound of your inevitable death."

Dark Rika sheathes the second purple sword and quickly unsheathes the family sword, then smiles and says "I'm taking you down, youkai!"

Yuka smiles and prepares herself defensively, then says "now don't make me chase after you. Come and die already."

Dark Rika takes the bait and rushes forth, swings her sword with all her might, then Yuka responds with a stronger swing of her parasol.

The surprise on Yuka's face is undeniable; instead of the sword flying away, there is a powerful vibration on both weapons, and dark Rika is sent flying away with her sword firmly on her hands.

Surprised, Yuka points at dark Rika and asks "what's the meaning of this? Your sword should be all the way over by the Nameless Hill!"

Dark Rika laughs, rushes back toward Yuka the second her feet touch the ground, then puts her face close to Yuka's as they both push against each other with their weapons and says "this sword's hilt is very special. You see, the hilt is made of red mine. No matter how hard you try, it won't fly off my hands unless I let go of it myself!"

Yuka is surprised when she realizes the sword now looks colorful, with its hilt in red, adorned with a small diamond on the bottom with the kanji letters for "Bond", and the unsharpened edge looks sky blue.

Seemingly frightened, Yuka manages to jump back and away from dark Rika, then points her parasol at the girl while holding a spell card on her left hand, then growls inward when she notices the dark girl's wings have grown to match the size of her body.

* * *

Not waiting to give her opponent a chance, Yuka quickly declares "Dual Spark!", then her body splits into two, then both Yukas attack in unison, firing a blue beam at the same time, both aiming at dark Rika, and all the dark girl can do is wrap her large black wings around herself.

The left Yuka laughs victoriously, then says "now be a good little evil spirit and return that body to its real owner."

The right Yuka opens her eyes wide in surprise and exclaims "what the-? Heads up! Something's not right!"

Both Yukas watch with horror at a strange and unexpected reaction on the meeting point of their beams, and just as they see the bottom of the black feathered wings, they are both pushed back by a great force, then dark Rika reveals herself unharmed, with both wings expanded as though she's just flapped them with great force, then laughs and says "these wings of mine are really good at deflecting beams and bullets. I must say, that goodie two-shoes self of mine has taken really good care of this body."

The Yuka to the right turns translucent, and as she glare at dark Rika, she merges again with the Yuka to the left to make one Yuka.

Dark Rika passes her hands all over her own torso, then moans as she stretches out again, and says "mmm, a little short, but still got it right where it counts, don't you think?"

Yuka growls, but doesn't reply, so dark Rika smiles for her, then holds her head as though in pain and bends her body as she drops to her knees.

Surprised, Yuka stares at Rika and cautiously stands up, then asks "you changed again. Is that the real Rika?"

With her normal voice, sounding as though she's struggling greatly, Rika says "quick... blast me now! Turn me to ashes!"

Yuka stares silently at the struggling girl, then Rika desperately shouts "NOW! She wants to kill you! You have to kill me now!"

Yuka frowns, turns her head to the left, then angrily says "I don't take orders from cry-babies like yourself! What's the matter with you, letting that weakling take over your body like that? Fight! You can win easily against her!"

Rika seems to struggle with herself for a moment, then drops to the ground and shouts "I CAN'T! She's me; she's the monster you see before you! Please, while I'm still me, let me die!"

Yuka snarls as she looks down at Rika with disgust, then says "tch! Stupid child! First of all, if I do that, Reimu is REALLY going to kill me. Second, if I kill you like that, you'll just become a vengeful spirit bound to my field!"

Rika suddenly stops moving, and seems to have calmed down, then Yuka gasps and opens her parasol, as though defending herself from something, and right afterward, dark Rika's twisted and warped voice loudly declares "Untitled, Darco Gessenkou!"

Yuka blinks after the spell is declared, and upon opening her eyes again, she finds dark Rika right in front of her, holding a purple sword on each hand, and with a dual crescent strike that makes the shape of a dark moon, she sends Yuka flying up to the air.

Dark Rika follows after Yuka, jumping straight up, and with another dual crescent strike, she sends Yuka falling to the ground with great force.

Right after Yuka lands on her back on the ground, yelping upon impact, dark Rika sheathes her swords and claps her hands, creating a moon on the ground around Yuka.

Before the youkai can even think of getting up, the moon becomes hundreds or dark oval bullets that rapidly fly to Yuka, making her scream out loud as her body is hit hard with one explosive bullet after another.

Yuka's screams suddenly stop, yet the explosions continue until the very last bullet explodes on the youkai's body.

Dark Rika slowly descends back to the ground, next to where Yuka's bloodied body lies, yet all she does to slump over it while leaving her hands hang limp.

Just like that, she picks herself up and stares at Yuka's blank stare, then turns around to look at Yuugi's pale, lifeless face, then drops on her knees.

She clenches the ground under her hands, picking up a fist of dirt, then starts sobbing, and with her normal and cracking voice, she says "no... This can't be. I... I warned them! They tried to help me, but all they managed to do was DIE! I, I..."

Before she can finish, her dark self whispers in her mind, saying "yes~! That's right Rika. You murdered them. You are a MONSTER!"

Rika sobs loudly, then cries "I'm a MONSTER! I... all they wanted to do was help! I should have fled when I had the chance, now look at what I did!"

Rika manages to stand up again, wiping the underside of her nose with her right forearm, then says to herself "I have to disappear! Nobody should see my face ever again! I'm a monster, and will live as such!"

Hatred, regret, fear and sadness claim Rika's heart at the sight of the destroyed bodies of those who tried to help her, and feeling convinced that she, herself really is a monster, she decides to take flight to parts unknown, hoping to never come across another living being ever again.

* * *

Shortly after Rika leaves, while the moon, which is still missing a bit of itself to the dark shadow of the eclipse, reflect itself on Yuka's blank eyes, the youkai angrily asks "hey, oni! Why the hell didn't you help me back there."

From further away, Yuugi replies "there is nothing either of us could have done. She's too sure that she's a monster. Even if we did manage to beat her, it would have meant nothing."

Yuka sighs, blinks, and after opening her eyes again, they are once more full of life.

She lifts herself up and looks at Yuugi from across the field, holding a large sake plate and drinking contently, then says "at least have the decency of offering some sake!"

Yuugi points to her immediate left, where a white cup and bottle sit on the ground, then says "you can join in whenever you want, miss."

Yuka smiles, then grunts a bit as she gets up, then makes her way to Yuugi's left, dropping on her seat and crossing her legs after falling, then takes the sake cup and drinks its content.

Yuugi chuckles, then says "that was a nice attempt from your part."

Yuka stares at the sword wound on Yuugi's left shoulder, then asks "to break through an oni's skin so easily. Tell me, how long have you been awake?"

Yuugi chuckles as she fills Yuka's cup, then says "the whole time."

Annoyed, Yuka replies "you could have helped with the flowers at least."

Yuugi sighs, then says "I'm not delicate enough. I'd break them the moment I touch them."

Yuka drinks her sake, then sighs and says "that's fine. Still, what are you doing here? I though you oni lived underground."

Yuugi smiles and says "I thought of enjoying the eclipse surrounded by flowers."

Yuka quickly asks "I thought you just said you weren't 'delicate'."

Yuugi smiles, then chuckles while refilling Yuka's cup, and replies "c'mon, drinking sake under the stars, watching a lunar eclipse, all while surrounded by the scent of flowers. What more could a girl ask for?"

Yuka takes her drink, smiles after gulping it down, then says "I guess you're right."

There is only silence between them for a few moments, the two girls drinking while looking at the moon, then Reimu suddenly lands in front of them with despair hidden in her eyes, then she asks "have any one of you seen Rika? There's something wrong with her, but I can't even find her!"

Yuugi blinks, noticing Reimu's despair is quickly flowing right out of the maiden, then say "oy, it's alright, she's fine, though she's having some self issues."

Reimu starts breathing a little faster, losing her cool quite quickly, but before she explodes, Yuka says "Reimu, getting desperate like that isn't going to help her. If you really want to help her, you need to calm down."

Reimu takes a few calming breaths, slowly relaxing, then Yuugi says "she went that way, toward the Forest of Magic. Mind you, Reimu, her appearance may seem shocking for a human like you."

Reimu wants to ask, but before she does, Yuka says "right now, she's very frightened, and could _really_ use your help, but if you go to her feeling like that, you'll drive her away."

Finally, Reimu takes one last, deep relaxing breath, then says "fine, you're right. I'm calm now. The Forest of Magic, are you sure?"

Yuugi nods, then calmly says "careful though", then Yuka quickly continues "there's something else trying to take over her. It's strong, but not beyond that girl's capabilities."

Yuugi quickly adds "she still needs some help. That's how we ended up like this, but maybe you'll have better luck."

Reimu stares with determination at the two girls, nods, bows in gratitude, then takes to the air, heading straight to the Forest of Magic.

Yuugi and Yuka watch as Reimu flies away for a while, then Yuka suddenly gets up and says "well, I better fix these poor flowers now that I recovered. After that, is back to that boring resort before Elly and Kurumi find out I'm here."

Yuugi smiles and salutes Yuka with another small white bottle, then Yuka chuckles and says "as long as you don't hurt my precious flowers, you can stay."

Yuugi smiles and chuckles, then says "you're a really cool gal, you know that."

Yuka stares at Yuugi for a moment, trying to figure out whether she's been complimented or insulted, but after looking into the oni's eyes for a moment, she smiles naturally, then makes her way toward the damaged flowers.

* * *

Hidden under the bushy trees of the Forest of Magic, Rika reaches a clearing, but decides against going into it and sits under a tree, surrounded by many bushes, broken branches, and the bones of a small animal.

Around Rika's feet, countless bugs crawl around, all apparently trying to escape from her, and after sobbing again, she says to herself "this is where I belong, and yet, even here I'm too monstrous. What should I do?"

Rika gasps and curls herself up into a ball, as if wanting to disappear from sight, when she hears some voices coming from the clearing.

She recognizes Alice's annoyed voice as she ask "can't you just leave us alone already?"

She hears when Rumia asks "are we being annoying?", then Shanghai quickly replying "I'm going to shoot!"

Alice quickly says "no, no, not yet Shanghai!", while Hourai cries out "I told you to stop looking under my skirt."

Rika almost lets out a giggle when she hears Agava replying "but are you really... you know... down there?"

At the clearing, Hourai flies straight toward Alice's chest and gets inside her shirt, crying "momma~, she's a lolicon~!"

Alice gets mad and stomps on the ground, almost dropping the basket with magical mushrooms and silk for her threads, then shouts "if you two don't go away, I'm going to blast you myself!"

Agava and Rumia regroup behind Alice, then the shadow youkai stretches her arms behind her head and calmly says "aww, I'm just curious. I mean, you're supposed to be dolls."

Alice suddenly gasps and looks to where Rika is hiding, then whispers "girls, weapons!", then she pulls her grimoire from her basket as Shanghai and Hourai position themselves in front of Alice, holding a lance and shield, and says "shh! There's something over there."

Rika knows the sudden silence means she's been found out, however she gets too nervous and can't decide if she should run away or stay hidden.

From the clearing, Alice shouts "come on out, whoever you are! I know you're there!"

Rika trembles, her mind races, her heart beats fast, and she can't decide what to do, so she closes her eyes and hopes to come up with a plan, and when she opens them up again, she finds Agava looking straight at her and casually saying "hey, another shadow youkai. What's up?"

Rika shrieks and gets up, instinctively flapping her long dark wings as she does and revealing herself to Alice, Shanghai and Hourai.

Alice glares at the monster in front of her and shouts "Shanghai, Hourai, take it out!"

The tiny girls stay floating next to Alice, then Alice prepares her dolls to attack instead while saying "ugh, they're scared! I'll have to do this on my own!"

Rika instinctively covers herself with her wings, but before Alice attacks, Shanghai and Hourai turn around and desperately shout at the same time "wait mom! That's miss Rika!"

Alice looks at the girls with confusion, then stares at the dark girl before her, then gasps and exclaims "whoa, you're right! Miss Rika, what happened to you?"

From the bushes to Rika's left, Agava jumps out and says "aww! And here I thought I found another shadow youkai to hang out with."

Shanghai and Hourai rush to happily greet Rika, but stop when Rika herself shouts "no, stop! Stay away from me!"

Looking disappointed, Shanghai asks "w-why? We're not going to harm you."

Hourai adds "aren't we supposed to greet friends when we see them?"

Rika trembles again, covering herself with her wings while saying "I've become a hideous monster, and if you get closer, I'll hurt you!"

Hourai feels sad after hearing that, then says "but miss Rika, you are very kind, a very good person. You'd never hurt us, right?"

Alice stares at Rika for some time, then thinks "that poor girl. She struggling with herself so much... wait... wait, this isn't right."

Shanghai and Hourai slowly start moving backward while staring sadly at Rika, then Alice shouts "girls, to me, NOW!"

Speaking in a warped tone of voice, as though mixing Rika's sweet voice, with dark Rika's sinister one, Rika says "it would be wise to run now, while I can still hold her back!"

Alice takes two steps back the moment the two tiny girls rush and crash on to her chest and embraces them tightly around her arms, then says "how can this be? Two opposing energies sharing one body! That girl... must be in so much pain!"

Rika slowly pulls her wings away, and while still speaking in that warped tone of voice, she says "run! Get away while you can!"

Alice nods and is about to run off, but she feels another source of power right behind her, and when she turns around with a frightened look in her eyes, she finds Rumia with a dark energy wave circling around her feet, her ribbon hanging around her fingers on her left hand, and a dark gust of wind energy that keeps making the ribbon and Rumia's skirt flutter violently.

Alice quickly jumps to the right, just as a dark, large broad sword appears form another circling wave of energy that sits inches away from where she was standing, and before they realize what happened next, Rumia is pressing her broad sword against dark Rika's purple Japanese swords, shouting "nobody interfere!"

Rumia smiles at dark Rika and says "shadows like you should stay hidden, missy!"

Dark Rika's warped and sinister voice now dominates as she says "more blood to fuel this girl's despair! Excellent! That's better for me!"

Rumia manages to push the sword away, then starts swinging her sword hard and fast, spinning in place to get more momentum for her blows, while dark Rika easily manages to block all the attacks, whether from above, below, or the side. From the sidelines, Alice, Shanghai, Hourai and Agava just watch with amazement at the battle unfolding before them.

* * *

Rumia and dark Rika start running around the clearing so fast, they both look like blurs, and every time they attack each other, they end up matching the attacks perfectly.

Dark Rika is amazed by how Rumia is able to wield her sword so fast, even though it's her own size, yet she continues to attack.

Alice, who holds the tiny girls, and Agava hide behind the bushes where Rika was hiding before, then Alice says "I'm sorry girls, but I don't think we can help Rika now. When she's distracted, we have to go and get help."

Alice looks at Agava, then nods and asks "do you understand?"

Agava sighs, thinking "once, I was such a powerful force of darkness. Now I'm enjoying life and running away from powerful opponents. This sucks.", but she just nods and says "she'll be alright. She can take it."

Alice turns her attention to the battle, then says "I don't think so. Something's not right. It's as if something is holding that creature back, preventing it from using its full power."

Hourai looks up at Alice's face from the left of Alice's chest, then says "it's miss Rika!"

From the right side, Shanghai adds "she's such a good person. There's no way she'll let that creature win!"

Alice looks back up and says "for our sake, I hope you two are right."

Meanwhile, Rumia and Rika find themselves trapped in another stalemate, pushing each other back with their swords with all their might.

Dark Rika smiles, then says "hey, we shouldn't be fighting each other, girl. We both favor the darkness, so why not join and kills those weaklings?"

Rumia smiles back, pushes dark Rika back with all her might, throwing her off balance for a moment, then replies "nope! I don't like you."

Dark Rika snarls and attempts an overhead strike, which Rumia easily avoids with a quick step to the left, then dark Rika shouts "fine, I don't like little snotty girls like you anyway!"

Rumia tosses her sword between her hands, giving dark Rika an opening she takes, and when dark Rika's sword is inches away from Rumia's chest, the darkness youkai grabs her own sword tightly on her left hand, lets it drop on top of dark Rika's, pushes it down to the ground, and when dark Rika and Rumia's faces are right next to each other, Rumia stares with a confident smile and asks "is that so~?"

As dark Rika pulls her sword out of the ground, Rumia kicks her abdomen hard and sends her crashing toward some bushes, then turns around to look at the girls with a straight face, and says "better get moving!"

Dark Rika tries to take the chance and attacks Rumia from the back, but the darkness youkai raises her own sword above her head and intercepts dark Rika's sword.

She scowls as she quickly turns around and switches her sword back to her right hand, smirks, then says "despicable! Attacking form behind like a coward! Rika will be ashamed!"

Somehow, those words infuriate dark Rika, and as she shouts "I am a _hundred_ times better than that _weakling_!", she expels so much dark energy, she pushes Rumia back with ease, as well as the spectators, sending the two tiny girls flying from Alice's arms.

Dark Rika rushes straight toward the two tiny girls, aiming to kill those two first, since Rika seems to have a heart connection with them, and killing them will hurt Rika, however, she is met with Rumia, who stands on her way, already swinging her broadsword from the left side.

Alice hears Shanghai scream, then gets up with fright and shouts "Shanghai! Shanghai, Hourai, were are you?"

When the girls fail to reply, Alice summons twenty of her dolls, all carrying thick lances, then rushes toward the source of Shanghai's scream.

She quickly finds Shanghai and Hourai hovering between dark Rika and Rumia, begging Rumia to not swing her sword, Shanghai saying "she's Rika now! You don't have to hurt her anymore!"

Agava joins Alice, then they both stare at the scene; Rika kneeling on the ground, stretching her neck and saying "do it", while Rumia has her sword raised above her head, ready to oblige to Rika's request for a quick death.

Alice shouts "Shanghai, Hourai, get away from her!"

Before anyone can react, Rika grabs Shanghai, slams her to the ground, and presses her purple sword on the tiny girl's neck, and in a sinister voice, she shouts "back off, or I cut off her neck!"

All the girls gasps and Rumia backs away, then dark Rika shrugs and in a manner-of-factly tone, says "on second thought, I'll do it anyway!"

Dark Rika uses her own body weight to press her sword against Shanghai's neck, ignoring the tiny girl's cries and Alice's pleas, but stops just as the blade is an inch away from the tiny girl's neck.

Even Alice's attacks stop when Hourai starts to sing Rika's family song out of despair, yet not missing a single tone.

The song of faith, struggle, hope, defiance, honor, love and accomplishment enters through the ears of all those present, and even though it's not being sung by Rika herself, it still has a powerful and soothing effect.

Dark Rika starts to cry, then Rika's voice pulls through as she says "no way. You're not killing her!"

Dark Rika's voice replies "you have no choice! I am in charge now!"

Rumia takes the chance and swings her sword, and just as she expected, dark Rika releases Shanghai and turns around to protect herself.

Right after Hourai stops singing, Rumia jumps forward, and after somehow grabbing Shanghai before dark Rika has another chance, she jumps back to her initial position, then smirks and says "cowards don't like pain, do they?"

Dark Rika jumps on her feet and swings her sword with all her might, forcing Rumia to block with her sword on her left hand, then pushes down hard, hoping to kill both Rumia and Shanghai after breaking through Rumia's defenses.

Alice's dolls start spinning around her, ready to attack, but a familiar voice stops everything, including dark Rika.

From the night skies, Reimu calls "Rika~! Rika, answer me, please! Why are you hiding form me?"

Dark Rika starts to tremble, then Rika's voice comes through again as she drops her sword, holds her head, then whispers "I almost killed you too. I..."

She hears Reimu calling for her again, then fear takes her heart again, and like a frightened animal, Rika takes off, running through bushes and making a lot of noise, allowing Reimu to hear the rustling form the sky and follow after her, keeping herself silent after noticing Alice and Rumia's hair between the tree leaves.

After Reimu flies over them, Agava walks toward Rumia, who has her ribbon back on her head and looking as normal as always, then asks "that's it? You're not chasing after her?"

Rumia smiles widely and ask "should I have to~?"

Shanghai cries as she embraces Alice and Hourai, who hug her back as though seeing a loved one coming back from the dead, then Shanghai cries "don't hate her mama! Rika saved me! She's not bad!"

Hourai quickly adds "Rika is good! Don't fight her!"

Alice takes a lot of breaths before finally holding both girls tighter and closing her eyes while saying "alright, calm down. I won't hate or fight her."

Though she does feel calm now, the thought of losing Shanghai like that fuels a fire in the pit of her stomach that makes her think "I don't care if she's not herself, I'd kill her if she even hurts one of your hairs!"

* * *

Meanwhile, as the eclipse ends and the moon recovers itself, Reimu dives down to the caves after the Forest of Magic and finds a trembling black ball on the ground, covering itself with a pair of tattered black wings and shouting in Rika's voice "get away! I'm a hideous monster!"

Reimu slowly gets closer to the trembling girl and after preparing herself for anything that might happen, she bends slightly and softly says "Rika, it's me, Reimu. Please, stand up and look at me."

An order from her mistress.

There is no way Rika can ignore this command, so, even though she doesn't really want to, she slowly stands up while looking away from Reimu, then slowly extends her wings to uncover herself.

Reimu smiles, feeling a bit more relaxed now, then softly says "almost there. Just turn around so I can see you."

Rika slowly turns around, and to her great surprise, Reimu is now standing very close to her and holding out her hand, smiling while saying "there, you see? You're not really a monster, are you?"

A tear rolls down Rika's right eye as she smiles and whispers "my lady", all while extending her own hand and asking "y-you don't mind if I look like this?"

Reimu sighs, eager to grab hold of Rika's hand, then says with a smile "you are still Rika, right? As long as you are you, then it doesn't matter to me."

Rika hesitantly moves her hand closer to Reimu, then the shrine maiden makes the last move, takes Rika's hand, places both hands on her maid's, then says "if you don't like how you look now, then we can fix this. Just stop running away from me!"

Without realizing it, Rika's body returns to normal; her eyes white with her sky-blue iris, her skin back to its usual light-pink state, and her wings white, and back to their small size.

Reimu smiles at Rika, then says "you see? Everything is back to normal. You just needed some encouragement."

Rika smiles, still unaware of her change, but then frowns and gasps, then embraces Reimu, desperately calling for her mistress, then opens her eyes wide and twists her face as though in pain.

Unsure of what's happening, Reimu worriedly asks "R-Rika, what's the matter?"

Rika slowly falls down to the ground with the scar on her back covered in a purple energy, and as she falls, she starts to tremble as she whispers "my... my lady. Th-thank you for... for seeing me as Rika... and not... some monster... my... lady."

Rika slowly falls to the ground, exhaling as she says that last word, then Reimu finally sees what had happened.

Standing further behind Rika is dark Rika, holding her hand in the air as powerful dark energy is absorbed once more into her being.

With a smile on her evil and twisted face, and with her iris glowing bright red, dark Rika stares at Reimu and says "finally. I managed to absorb enough negativity from her to have a body of my own!"

Reimu drops on her knees just as Rika falls to the ground, cushioning her head with her lap, then stares in shock at her maid, then at the dark being that smiles so wickedly.

Dark Rika shrugs, as though not caring for Rika at all, then says "you see, I feed off negative emotions, and the colossal meal that fool gave me has empowered me! But now I want more! Perhaps..."

Before she finishes her sentence, Reimu has already set Rika on the ground with her own ribbon on the maid's back, covering her scar, and is now charging at dark Rika with her gohei and her Fantasy Heaven spell card on hand, then dark Rika unsheathes her remaining two swords and blocks Reimu's vicious attack while smiling.

Rage and hatred now fill up the usually calm maiden's heart, unknowingly feeding dark Rika even more, and while smiling, dark Rika says "yes~, YES! More! Hate me MORE!"

Reimu and dark Rika suddenly take to the air, and while Reimu unleashes needles, charms and amulets in unison, she shouts "you killed her! I'll never forgive you!"

Dark Rika laughs and flashes a spell card, then says "only hatred can defeat me now! Come at me with all the hatred you can muster!"

Blinded by grief, Reimu rushes straight to dark Rika, her lose hair waving in the wind as she lunges toward her hated enemy.

* * *

Using every ounce of strength in her, Reimu strikes dark Rika's swords with her gohei, while throwing as many amulets and needles as she can every time they split up, even if it's just for a second.

Dark Rika laughs and just blocks all the attacks, making sure to keep Reimu as furious as she can.

Without giving much though, Reimu furiously throws her Fantasy Heaven spell card along with more amulets, then looks for another, almost ripping her own skirt off as she furiously pulls a small pack of spell cards from her pocket, letting them all fall down to the ground, then shouts "I will make you PAY! Treasure Tool, Yin-Yang Demon God Orb!"

A large yin yang orb made of light-blue light rushes toward dark Rika, but before she can jump away, Reimu is already on top of her and striking her face as hard as she can with her gohei, sending the dark girl straight into the burning light.

Dark Rika screams, feeling as though a thousand knives are all cutting through her skin over and over again, and when it all stops, Reimu is thrusting her gohei right on to dark Rika's stomach and pushing her down to the ground for a powerful impact.

Reimu can feel as though her gohei breaks through the dark one's skin as they impact the ground, and feels great satisfaction when she hears the pain on dark Rika's voice when she breaks her lower back on impact.

Reimu is still furious, and she can see that dark Rika isn't really hurt at all, just faking it.

Her rage rises, so she starts throwing needles at point blank while looking around on the ground at her scattered spell cards, then finds her Omnidirectional Demon Binding Circle and aims to get it, but the second she stops throwing her needles, dark Rika stands up and gets in her way.

With a smile on her face, dark Rika says "thanks for the meal, miss. Now it's time I repay your kindness."

She takes the spell card she flashed at Reimu earlier and shouts "Untitled, Darco Houryuu Zankouken!"

Dark Rika holds her two sheathed swords by their hilts, crossing her arms over herself, and stares at Reimu with her glowing red eyes, then rapidly cuts the air around herself, leaving marks all over the area, then suddenly appears in the air, sheathing her swords.

Reimu stares at the marks and angrily asks "what the hell is this crap of a spell, you wretch?"

Dark Rika smiles and fully sheathes her swords, and the moment they click in place, the marks become hundreds of dark bullets that scatter all over unevenly.

Reimu gasps and takes flight to avoid the attack, but after dark Rika prepares another set of marks in the air, she rushes to Reimu and strikes her with the hilt of her right sword, saying "stay down and take your medicine, girl!"

Reimu yelps when she is hit, screams in pain when she lands against a small rock on her back, then groans as she rubs her back after the powerful impact.

She suddenly opens her eyes wide, and doing her best to ignore the sharp pain on her back, she throws four amulets to the air and creates a barrier to protect herself from dark Rika's bullets.

To her horror, dark Rika has already prepared more of those marks above her head, and as she protects herself from the frontal attack, she is left exposed to the aerial attack, but Reimu is no simpleton.

Noticing the aerial attack at the last second, Reimu manages to open a gap and teleport just above the dark girl, falling out of her gap with her right leg surrounded by an orange energy and striking dark Rika on the back of her head, sending her crashing to the ground again.

* * *

Having cancelled dark Rika's spell, Reimu flies straight toward the dark girl, ready to attack again, but stops when she notices her opponent is already standing on her feet and smiling wickedly while pointing her hand straight back at the maiden.

Reimu readies herself for the attack, but fails to notice when dark Rika moves, and by the time she realizes this, the dark girl is already hitting the back of her head with the hilt of her sword, making her scream in pain as she falls down to the ground again.

Reimu groans as she gets back up, and after managing to stand on her feet without falling again, she finds dark Rika standing a few feet away from her, preparing a large mass of dark energy.

Dark Rika smiles at Reimu, then says "thanks for all the power you gave me. Now, I'm glad to announce that you are dead. Give the enma my regards."

A thick purple beam flies from dark Rika's hand, straight on to Reimu's face.

Its power is far beyond what Reimu can defend against now, most of her strength gone after exploding with rage as she did, then having gotten beat so hard.

All she can do now is clench her eyes and cover her face with her arms while she waits, and after doing just that for a few seconds, she realizes nothing is happening.

She slowly opens her eyes and quickly realizes she's enveloped by three pair of wings, one pair made of feathers, the other two made of pure white light.

Before she looks up, she hears Rika's voice as she says "nobody, and I mean NOBODY hurts my lady and gets AWAY with it!"

Rika spreads her wings and sends the dark beam flying to the sky, then turns around to face her dark self, revealing her Soraogan blood limit is fully activated, while Reimu is left standing in shock and surprise.

Rika raises her hand, showing a peculiar spell card with a strange silver symbol on one side, and blank on the other.

Rika loudly calls "Quicksilver!", then the card starts spinning just above her hand, showing two faces as it does, then stops, showing one of those two faces, then Rika grabs the silver glowing card and finishes "Ten'i Campeci Souhazan!"

Dark Rika gasps and tries to fly away, but it's too late for her.

Using the energy from her four white energy wings, Rika covers the immediate area with quicksilver energy, and while dark Rika slows down to a stop, Rika moves so fast, it looks like she's teleporting from one place to another.

In a second, she activates her oath keeper and picks her wind sword, throws it at her dark self, and as it becomes three green energy blades spinning in the air, she enters the gate again and comes out with her earths sword, charges her hand with yellow energy, then punches the ground three times, creating three pillars, then almost instantly cuts them and sends the pieces flying straight at her dark self.

As the wind blades make contact, Rika enters the gate and exits with her fire and ice swords, then she grabs her fire sword, dances with it, and sends a swarm of fire attacks that look like dragons.

She sheathes her fire sword, grabs her water sword, then slashes the air twice, making an ice X, then covers her own hand in ice, punches the X, then sends countless needles of ice straight at dark Rika.

Just as the rocks impact the dark one, and the wind sword spins all the way back into the gate, Rika enters it and exits with her thunder sword.

Dark Rika turns around to attack, but the fire dragons are all over her long before she's done turning around, while Rika unsheathes her thunder sword and runs straight at her dark self.

As she runs forth, she cuts the air and draws many lines that become stationary thunder bullets, and when she's right next to dark Rika, she stands in place and sheathes her thunder sword, causing the thunder bullets to head straight to her dark self and strike at the very same time as the ice needles, augmenting in power when the ice and electricity mix.

Finally, Rika unsheathes her family sword, charges it up with pure light, then moves across dark Rika's floating body in an instant.

When she sheathes her sword, three slashes appears across the dark one's body that shine as bright as stars in the night sky.

Finally, Rika ends her spell, her wings of light disappear, and she takes a relaxing sigh while looking toward her dark self.

Dark Rika swings her dark sword at nothing, then just stands in place for a moment, and just like that, her body and swords become ashes that fall and spread with the wind around the ground.

* * *

Even after all is done, and everything settles down, Reimu stares at Rika while in shock.

Rika tosses her thunder sword back into the gate, collects her Oath Keeper card, then turns to Reimu, who surprises her with a sudden rush-hug, almost crying while shouting "you're alive! You're alive and well!"

Rika is surprised at first, but she quickly returns Reimu's hug and says "yes, I'm alive, and know, that even as a monster, I will never stop protecting you... my lady."

Reimu laughs while squeezing Rika between her arms and says "you idiot. You really are incorrigible."

Rika gasps with excitement, as though remembering something, then lightly pushes Reimu away and rummages through her right pocket, then takes out Reimu's ribbon, along with all her dropped spell card, placing Fantasy Heaven on top of the pack, then says "you dropped these, my lady."

Reimu accepts her ribbon and cards with a smile, then she and Rika look surprised to the sky when they hear Shikieiki's familiar voice saying "congratulations miss Rika, you finally passed the final trial, and as such..."

Shikieiki lands right next to Reimu and Rika, and as Reimu places her ribbon back on, the yama offers Rika a black box with a diamond-shaped keyhole, then winks and finishes saying "... I give you your family's secret."

Rika and Reimu both look with surprise at Shikieiki, then Rika thinks for a moment, gasps, then exclaims "th-that's right! I got so scared after turning into a monster that I forgot this was my last trial!"

Rika face palms the left side of her forehead hard, and says "ugh, that's so embarrassing!"

Shikieiki smiles at Rika, then says "it's nothing to be embarrassed about. This trial had you face the worst in you, and you beat it. You have earned this without question."

Rika and Reimu stare at the box and notice the keyhole looks just like the jewel on Rika's sword, then Reimu asks "so what's in here?"

When they turn around again, they notice Shikieiki is long gone, but neither is surprised and resume exploring the box some more.

Finally, Reimu says "come on, try it already."

Knowing what Reimu means, Rika quickly takes her sword on hand and gently places the diamond on her sword's hilt against the keyhole on the box.

The second she does that, the box bursts open and out comes a large bird-like youkai beast with red feathers, redder wings that have hints of white, only visible when it fully spreads them, a long red tail, and a pair of white eyes that seems to glow in the dark.

The bird sings a beautiful song as it rises to the air, then lands on Rika's shoulder, forming a shikigami contract with her, then speaking through her mind, sounding like a calm, wise, cheerful and mature woman, she says "finally, after all this time. My new master!"

Rika turns her head as much as she can to stare at the bird, then opens her mouth.

Before she speaks, the bird speaks through her mind looking at Reimu and saying "oh, what a strong presence. You remind me of the Phoenix, my creator. You're my mom now!"

Reimu quickly complains, shouting "hey, I'm not old!"

Rika chuckles nervously, then asks "um, excuse me, but..."

The bird stretches her wings, then says "I am Suzaku the Vermillion Bird. I have been with the Onkamikami since the beginning, as a familiar. Now you are my new master Rika-sama, and about time too."

Reimu looks confused, then says "Vermillion bird, huh? I could sense your god-like spirit the second you came out of your box."

Suzaku seems to smile as she looks at Reimu, then says "mom is wise! I will definitely like being with you and Rika-sama!"

Reimu and Rika smile while looking at the red bird, then Rika suddenly says "um, we better get home. We can get to know each other better over there."

Suzaku stares at Rika, then points her beak at Reimu, letting her know she's observing her now, then says "you are both very tired. Why don't we go home so you can rest before asking more questions?"

Rika and Reimu look at Suzaku with surprise, then at each other, then they smile, nod, then Reimu says "good idea. It's been a very long night after all."

* * *

Later, at the Hakurei Shrine, just before the moon finishes setting, Mima and Suika sleep in Mima's room under the shrine's storage house, while Marisa sleeps on the floor of the living room undisturbed, even though Reimu is sitting across the room next to the small table with a cup of tea, waiting for Rika to finish her bath while petting Suzaku, who nests contently on Reimu's lap.

While the maiden gently pats the bird's entire body down to her long tail, she thinks "I lost myself. When I thought she died, I lost myself and forgot everything. I just wanted to kill the murderer. I'm attached to her now, maybe even more attached to Rika than Marisa, and... that is saying something... but... Is it ok to have these kind attachments? I'm a shrine maiden, and..."

Before she finishes, Suzaku lifts her head to look at Reimu, then says "mom, it's alright. You are a human, and as such, you can only do so much."

Reimu quickly whispers "c-can you read my mind?"

Suzaku shakes her head, then says "I can only speak through telepathy, but I can't read your mind, so don't you worry. I just felt what you were feeling just now for that girl, and for master, and I managed to guess right after all."

Reimu nods and pats the bird's body, then whispers "I guess you're right, then... about me being human. I guess I still have a long way to go, huh?"

Suzaku nods, then says "it's all part of life, mom. Don't worry about it too much now. Just live and enjoy life when you can. Master and I, and I am sure your friend, miss Marisa, we will be there for you when you need us."

Reimu smiles, then softly says "then I'll try to be there for you, if you ever need me."

Reimu giggles, while Suzaku lets out a small whistle, and after petting the red bird for a little longer, she says "you know, for a god, you act very humble, and you really act like a familiar too. I really respect that of you."

Suzaku lowers her head, then says "there are reasons for this, mom, but now is not the time for that tale."

Reimu nods and looks at Marisa, who moans and starts waving her arms in the air while sleeping, then chuckles and says "you're right. We'll leave that for later. So, how about we play a prank on Marisa now?"

Suzaku hops off Reimu's lap and points at her with her left wing and sounding surprised, she says "mom, that's no way to behave!"

Reimu giggles, then walks to the kitchen, saying "still, it's going to be fun."

Suzaku chases after Reimu, hopping on the floor while saying "mom please, don't be so mean."

* * *

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Kimi, Kali and Agava were created by Willie G.R.

Rika Onkamikami and Suzaku the Vermillion Bird were created by Snapshot 2010

Dark Rika's spell cards:

"Untitled, Darco Gessenkou" (Dark Moon Glare) and

"Untitled, Darco Houryuu Zankouken" (Dark Dragon Glare)

And Rika's spell card:

"Quicksilver, Ten'i Campeci Souhazan" (Complete Space Embrace Lunge)

Were created by Snapshot 2010

SEP 27 2010

Story by

Snapshot 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Well, another quite long chapter. Since nobody reviewed or commented on the last, then I am glad to assume longer chapters are welcome. Will do my best to continue with long chapters. Next one is a comedy chapter. See you next time.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: **

**Warning, contains many laughable moments with: semi-nakedness, harsh punishments, youkai abuse, sexy scenes, goddess abuse, more goddess abuse, and missing swimsuit pieces. Hope you'll enjoy.

* * *

  
**

Late morning at the Hakurei Shrine.

Reimu walks out of the shrine straight to the front, and finds Rika already awake, trying out a wind spell on Tenshi, covering her body in swirling gusts and shooting light bullets at the celestial, only to have them bounce off instantly.

She giggles, then looks up to the sky and spots Suzaku, the newest addition to the Hakurei Shrine, flying in circles all around, as though monitoring the entire shrine from the sky.

Reimu places her left hand on her head, rubs herself, then stands relaxed and says "good morning Rika, how are you feeling?"

Rika quickly turns her head to smile at Reimu, bows, then says "good morning my lady! I am feeling great! I hope you had a pleasant rest."

Reimu's smile seems to brighten, then she says "it was quite pleasant, thank you."

Looking at Reimu smile like that, Rika can't help but rapidly flap her small wings while tilting her head to the right and giggling contently.

This sight causes Tenshi to look extremely surprised and gush blood out her nose and onto the spinning gusts that surround her, and just as she holds on to her nose, the blood splatters back on to her own dress.

Rika notices this and yelps, then looks at Reimu's red and smiling face, then looking very confused and sounding agitated, she asks "my lady, Tenshi, what's wrong?"

Both Tenshi and Reimu flip their right thumbs up, and while still smiling, and sounding as though out of breath , they both say "it's nothing at all, heh heh."

Reimu quickly recovers and turns around, then says "I'm a little hungry, so-"

Before she finishes her sentence, Rika says "ah, breakfast is served. It's on the kitchen table."

Reimu turns around, again smiling like before, then says "thank you very much Rika."

Instead of getting the same reaction from Rika as before, she realizes her maid is staring back at her while angrily tapping her foot.

Reimu looks confused, then Rika says "what you did to miss Marisa was very mean."

Reimu smirks mischievously, then says "relax, it's just water. Besides, that's what she gets for crashing in my shrine while we're not here."

A few minutes later, Marisa wakes up with her face full of marks and drawings.

On her forehead is the letters in kanji for "meat", around her left eye, Reimu drew a monocle, over her right, she drew a crown with a beard, under her nose she drew a mustache, on her chin a thin beard, and to the left of that, the letters in katakana for "Master Spark", and on her right cheek, a perfectly round swirl.

Marisa smacks her lips after finishing stretching out, then starts looking around with somber eyes, which suddenly open up wide with shock, waking up in an instant when she touches her sheets and futon and realizes they are wet.

With a terrorized gasp, she springs out of the futon and whispers "oh no... I didn't!"

From the table, Reimu happily greets Marisa, saying "well, good morning! Did you sleep well?"

Upon hearing Reimu's voice, Marisa instantly grabs the futon and turns it into a ball, covering her wet bloomers with it, hoping Reimu doesn't take notice of the embarrassing situation, then says "g-g-good morning Reimu. Um, I sweated a lot, so I'll just take this outside to dry, and..."

Reimu stares at Marisa while feigning confusion and curiosity, then asks "why, what's the matter Marisa? Did something happen?"

Marisa starts sweating as her face start turning a little red, then she manages to smile and laugh nervously, then says "me? Nah~! I'm fine! Just being a good friend and making sure not to stink up the place, so..."

Without waiting for Reimu to ask again, Marisa zips right out the shrine's left exit, leaving a trail of dust kicked up by her feet.

The second Marisa is out that door, Reimu starts laughing hard, spitting out some rice as she does, and when she notices the vulgarity, she swipes the back of her sleeve over her mouth and cleans the scattered rice pieces from the table, smiling and saying to herself "ah, it's so worth it!"

* * *

Meanwhile, down at the Kappa-pa Resort, Ail and Sanae are already wide awake.

Ail sits on his bed, wearing red swim trunks and a pair of wooden sandals, and puts on some sun screen over his arms, torso and legs.

Sanae sneaks from behind him, places her hand on his bare back, then whispers "I do your back, you do mine~"

Ail's face turns bright red as Sanae presses herself against his back, asking "like my bikini? Haven't used it much since I came to Gensokyo."

Ail's ears start blowing out steam when he looks at the mirror in front of the bed and notices Sanae is wearing blue bikini with white designs similar to her shrine maiden's skirt, except for some random stars designs, that fits her just perfectly.

Ail gulps and trembles as he nods, then all of a sudden, he and Sanae just stay still, Ail completely returns to normal, Sanae sighs angrily, almost growling as she does.

Inside the closet, a familiar girl's voice whispers "why are they stopping?"

A woman whispers back "I don't know. I had the camera ready and everything."

They watch through the door's grills as Sanae and Ail get off the bed and on to their feet with very annoyed looks on their faces, then walk out the room without their towels, shirts, extra robes or the lunch basket.

Suwako concernedly whispers "wait, they are leaving everything behind."

Kanako whispers "grr, my Sanae is shamelessly exposing herself to public eyes, and without getting donations first!"

Suwako quickly replies "hey, there are many wrong things with that statement, you pervert."

Before Kanako replies, she asks "hey, where's the floor?"

Both goddesses scream loud when they find themselves falling through one of Ail's gaps, and as they fall, they are raked by sharp gardening tools, attacked by rogue electric hair cutters, a spinning hedge clipper that tears their clothes to bits, a barking dog made of wind energy that rips off their skirts, and finally, they fall out of the gap and on to the floor right in front of the Ail's and Sanae's room.

Kanako and Suwako slowly stand up and realize they are a mess.

Their shirts have been cut to the point of looking like bikini tops, and their panties are fully exposed, Kanako wearing a star-printed pair, and Suwako a purple striped pair.

When they look at each other, they point at each other, scream, cover themselves with their hands as best as they can, scream again, then Suwako finally shouts "Kanako, you, we, what the hell happened?"

Before Kanako answers, the familiar sad tune from a music box catches their ears, and with terrorized faces, Kanako and Suwako look ahead of themselves, and find Ail and Sanae tapping their feet on the ground, looking at them with an ominous shadow over their eyes, and an ominous smile on their faces.

Ail grins, then says "I would have NEVER expected something like this from you, Moriya-sama!"

Sanae opens her eyes and smiles at Kanako, then asks "what are you doing here?"

Kanako foolishly moves her hands around as she tries to find a good excuse, revealing a modern camcorder.

When she realizes what she did, she smiles at Sanae as naturally as she can, then, in a very weird tone of voice, says "your eyes! Deceive you they can! Trust them you should not."

Ail summons a large piko-hammer made of yellow light, using Suwako's own blessing from his bracelet, while Sanae holds her gohei on her right hand and smacks it against her left, then she and Ail swing their weapons in unison, sending the goddesses flying down to the ground floor after a powerful explosion, then sigh contently as they get back inside their room with smiles on their faces, Sanae saying "ah I think I want a sandwich for lunch today", then the sad music stops playing.

Down on the ground floor, Suwako and Kanako land on their faces on the ground just inches away from one of the hot tubs, and while their bodies stay stiff like poles, Kanako grunts and says "th-that... wasn't so bad."

Suwako stammers before finally saying "yeah. Th-they could have alerted... Budou."

A cleaning droid passes by and stares at the goddesses, opens a surprisingly large garbage carrier, then picks the goddesses up, saying "burnable garbage. Activate furnaces, maximum output."

* * *

Later, in the room below Ail's and Sanae's, the door to Yuka, Elly and Kurumi's room slowly opens, and from within, Kurumi moans and asks "miss Yuka, do we really have to~?"

There is a moment of silence, then the door suddenly bursts wide open and out fly Elly and Kurumi, falling on their faces on the ground, Kurumi wearing a rather small white bikini that reveals her more womanly features, and a bright red hand mark on her back.

Elly wears her hat and a blood-red bikini that fits her perfectly, also showing off her features, and a bright red hand mark on her back as well.

Yuka walks out of the room wearing a red plaid one-piece swimsuit that seems a bit tight, and holding her parasol as usual, smiling ominously, as usual, she uses the two girls as stepping stones while still smiling, as usual.

She turns around, bends slightly to meet the girl's faces, then says "get up, I want to see the other one."

Kurumi wines, while Elly sighs in defeat, and when both girls get up, they both reveal they have the same red hand mark that's on their backs on their stomachs as well, Kurumi, once again revealing her womanly features, despite her child-like size.

Elly sighs again and turns to shut the door, then says "all this because we were concerned for you, Yukarin. It's so unfair."

A translucent shadow covers Yuka's eyes as her smile widens, then she lifts her right hand and in a friendly tone, she asks "_what was that, did you want another? There's plenty of places I haven't marked yet~._"

Elly quickly jumps back, shaking her head and her hands over her chest while crying and nervously stammering incoherently.

Yuka returns to her normal self, and after hiding away her hand, she places her left foot on the protective railing as she prepares to jump down to the ground floor.

Kurumi and Elly panic, then Kurumi says "wait, miss Yuka you shouldn't!"

Elly quickly adds "we should use the elevator! After all w-w-we are here to rest."

Yuka stares at the girls with her confused narrow eyes, then smiles and says "yes, you are right. Let's use the elevator", then casually walks to the nearest elevator, which is only 3 more rooms away to their left.

Both Elly and Kurumi sigh with great relief when Yuka accepts their proposition so willingly, then walk after her to the elevator, where she eagerly waits for them with a smile on her face.

Once inside, the elevator doors slowly close on their own, then the girls scream, their screams accompanied by the sound of continuous smacking.

The elevator doors open up once they reach the ground floor, revealing Elly and Kurumi with large bumps on their heads and dazed looks on their faces as they sway around, and Yuka with an even wider and satisfied smile on her face.

As she walks out of the elevator, Yuka says "come on girls, the beach awaits."

Elly and Kurumi manage to dizzily mumble something, which Yuka accepts as acknowledgement, then they slowly make their way to the beach, unaware Guzman is close by, keeping himself hidden from them, using in improved version of the mirror cloak, thinking "she's going to be mine. That goddess is MINE."

The moment they reach the beach, Yuka, Elly and Kurumi see Ail and Sanae at the gate, wearing matching white shirts, gazing at the sight of the artificial beach.

While Elly whispers "oh, it's that Ail guy with the green maiden", Yuka calls "hey Ail, green maiden~! What a coincidence to meet here!"

Ail and Sanae turn to look at Yuka, then Ail smiles and says "Yuka, Elly, Kurumi, how are you? Are you here on a vacation too?"

Sanae smiles, even though she wants to kill the intruders of her lovely-dovey alone-time with Ail, then says "well, hello... And my name is Sanae, so please remember it."

Yuka immediately grabs Ail by his neck, squeezes him until it cracks, then says "say~, why haven't you visited me? I've been taking care of that flower of yours, so the least you could do is pay a visit once in a while."

Out of breath, Ail groans "ack, sorry... been busy!"

Yuka releases Ail, letting him tumble backward until he falls on his back on the sand, then sighs and says "alright then, I'll give you another chance."

Somehow, Ail is already standing next to Sanae, and says "come on, let's get closer to the water."

Sanae quickly jumps on Ail's left shoulder, almost knocking the lunch basket off his hand, and in a playful tone, she says "come on, he's eager to see me all wet in my bikini."

Hitting a bull's eye, Sanae's comment makes Ail's face turn bright red almost instantly, accompanied by a miniature nuclear explosion on top of his head, and after getting extremely nervous, he manages to softly say "um... ahem, l-let's go already."

Yuka follows after the couple, smirking wickedly, while Elly looks disgusted, and Kurumi completely uninterested.

* * *

Later, Sanae and Ail swim around the middle part of the beach, diving and looking around, wondering how real the artificial beach is.

While they do, Kanako, who looks like a strange giant crab, walks to Suwako, who take the shape of a turtle with frog eyes, then says "she looks like a mermaid, doesn't she?"

Suwako joins Kanako and blushes while smiling and drooling, then says "my Sanae sure has grown. She really takes after me."

Kanako snaps out of her world, glares at Suwako, snaps her claws, then says "she's not a flat-chested toad!"

Suwako glares at Kanako and asks "what are you talking about over there gramma?"

Before they can start fighting, they realize Ail and Sanae are about to dive just above them, then Kanako whispers "here they come", and Suwako desperately adds "act natural!"

Sanae swims down to meet the two goddesses in disguise, stares at them with suspicion, making them nervous, then quickly swims back up.

Again, the goddesses blush and drool while staring at Sanae, then Suwako says "just like a mermaid."

On the water's surface, Sanae springs right out of the water, jerking her head backward, making her hair flip back, kicking glistening water all around herself and driving many of the men, even the youkai, crazy at the sight.

After looking around, she spots Ail close by and shouts "Ail, over here! I found something!"

After calling for Ail, all the men groan angrily and turn away, some angrily saying "all the good ones are always taken."

Ail reaches Sanae and asks "what is it sweetie?"

Sanae giggles and says "I just saw an old crab and a slimy bulgy-eyed turtle!"

Almost instantly, Kanako and Suwako spring out from underwater in their normal forms, wearing new clothes and looking furiously at Sanae. Kanako shouts "who the hell are you calling old!"

Suwako shouts "I'm not slimy, OR bulgy-eyed, kero!"

Ail and Sanae smile ominously at the two goddesses, Ail making a giant flyswatter of light out of Shinki's blessing on his bracelet, then both fly slowly out of the water.

Kanako and Suwako smile nervously, then Kanako, sounding as normal as she can, says "hook, line and sinker."

Suwako chuckles and says "we really fell for it."

Sanae summons furious winds that cause a sudden wave that sends the two goddesses flying to the air, then Ail swings his flyswatter with all his might, sending the goddesses flying toward the mountain area.

Ail and Sanae place a hand over their eyes as they watch the goddesses fly away, then Sanae happily says "nice swing, darling."

Ail smiles and replies "thanks sweetie."

Several yards away to the right side of the beach, Kanako and Suwako have landed with their backs against the sharp mountainous walls, and now look like a splattered mess with a pair of eyes each.

Suwako groans, then says "they seem to be one step ahead."

Kanako sighs, then says "we're going to have to be more careful. I haven't been able to get any footage at all."

Suwako, sounding increasingly agitated, asks "what? You mean you didn't get her just now? Kanako, that's just unfair!"

Kanako sniffles, then whines as she says "I know~! I was just too distracted!"

Before Suwako can scold Kanako some more, a silver robot with a wide body, a round pair of red eyes and using a hovering device to fly, stares at the goddesses while making many beeping sounds.

Kanako is about to suggest they escape, but the robot suddenly sets off an alarm, along with a red rotating light on top of its head, then loudly says "warning, warning! Ancient toxins detected! Incinerate immediately!"

Kanako screams while Suwako shouts "not again~!", then the robot opens its mouth from where a gun barrel with a wide head spring out of, and shoots scorching fire at the screaming goddesses.

After incinerating them for about thirty seconds, it stops, retracts the barrel, then springs out a silver snake-like hose with a flat and wide tip, then sucks up the ashes that remain stuck on the wall.

After making sure its job is done, the robot beeps, retracts the hose, then says "all clean!", then flies away to the top of the mountain, where its feet, a pair of metallic wheels, wait for his return.

* * *

Moments later, at the shore, far away from the water, Kurumi tries to hide the red burning hand marks from Yuka by burying half her body under the sand, but Yuka is already on her, grabs her under her arms, pulls her out of the hole with ease, kicks a ridiculous amount of sand to cover the hole perfectly, sets the little vampire back on the ground, then pats her head and goes to the water.

Kurumi sighs and wines in defeat, then walks toward Elly, who is fully concentrated on building a huge sand castle big enough for someone to actually live in it.

Kurumi stares at Elly's work, and sounding a bit annoyed and curious, she asks "what are you doing?"

Elly continues working on the inside of what seems to be the castle's foyer, then says "I'm making a cozy castle for me and miss Yukarin! Ah~, she's going to be so pleased with me!"

_In her mind, Elly sees Yuka running in slow motion toward her, smiling and saying "Elly~! This castle, for me? Oh my, you shouldn't have!"_

_ Elly grabs Yuka's hands and starts spinning around the castle's entrance, blushing while saying "for Yukarin, I'd do anything!" _

_Yuka's face changes, her eyes narrow, her smile seems a little wicked, and with a soft and seductive voice, she asks "anything?"_

_ Elly's cheeks turn redder as she looks away, then back at Yuka's eyes, then says "anything."_

_ Before long, Yuka knocks Elly on the ground, jumps on her, then she and Elly start giggling._

Back in reality, Kurumi stares with disgust as Elly starts to blush and drool while looking toward nowhere with sparkling eyes, repeating "oh, miss Yukarin, you're so bold."

Kurumi decides to head elsewhere, and when she turns around, she yelps with surprise when she finds Ail observing her thoroughly, even placing his hand on his chin and paying full attention to her.

Kurumi blushes and tries to cover herself with her right wing, and sounding a bit agitated, she asks "wh-what the hell are you looking at?"

Ail continues to stare, even after Sanae lightly bumps her shoulder against his, then he says "I see. Kurumi looks like a child, but she's really a woman."

Kurumi's face turns bright red, and quickly jumps on Ail, cling her feet on his shoulder, rapidly punches his head, grabs his cheeks, stretches them out, then exclaims "where the hell are you looking at, you PERVERT?"

Sanae looks a little annoyed as she looks at him and asks "yes, what _exactly_ are you looking at?"

With his stretched cheeks, Ail manages to say "shorry, I'm shorry, I didn't mean it that way."

Kurumi jumps off Ail, covers herself up with her wings, glare up at Ail's face while still blushing, then asks "what exactly did you mean then?"

Sanae has her gohei already pointed at his face and says "yes, please explain!"

Ail sighs, rubs his cheeks, and with tears clinging under his pained eyes, he says "well you see, Remilia is a VERY powerful vampire, but she still looks like a child."

Kurumi and Sanae say "yes, go on..." at the same time, then Ail continues in a naturally matter-of-factly tone "well, seeing as miss Kurumi is a weak vampire, with all due respect, it leads me to believe that it's all about the breasts. No breasts, means she's strong, while large breasted means she's weak."

Sanae calms down and says "ohh, so that's what it is", but Kurumi looks furious, her eyes turn completely white, her face turns blood red, and steam flies out of her ears.

In a second, she jumps on the back of Ail's head and starts biting hard, all while shouting "I'll show you 'weak vampire' you pink monkey!"

Ail screams while running around with Kurumi on his face, her wings making him look like some sort of incubus, and while this happens, Yuka joins Sanae as a spectator and asks "what happened here?"

Sanae shrugs, then calmly says "he just picked a fight with her and already lost."

Yuka and Sanae stare as Ail runs left and right, screaming and calling for help, while Kurumi continues to gnaw on the back of his head, growling while asking "is this weak enough for you?"

While Sanae and Yuka continue to watch, Sanae says "hmm, I better remind him, when Remilia grew up because of that spell, she got a hell of a lot stronger, and she had large breasts."

Yuka turns her attention to Sanae, staring curiously at the wind priestess, wondering what she is talking about, shrugs, then returns to watching Ail running around with Kurumi biting his head.

From behind them, inside the sand castle, Elly calls "miss Yuka~! Miss Yukarin, over here, look what I made for us!"

From inside, Elly frowns when Yuka completely ignores her, then notices Yuka is looking at Ail, though she fails to notice Kurumi's relentless attacks, how being danmaku blasts on his back.

She takes a deep breath, then loudly says "_I made a cozy castle, just for you miss Yukarin~!_"

Yuka turns around with a very annoyed face, then says "hey, shut up already! Can't you see I am being amused here?"

Elly growls, her cheeks turn red, her eyes ominous, and after growling inwardly, she whispers "grr~! Ail~!", then kicks the castle's entrance.

There is a loud rumbling accompanied by some rough trembling, then Elly yelps when the entire castle comes crashing down on top of her head.

After everything settles, Elly pushes her furious face out from under the sand and glares at Ail while he runs back and forth, trying to escape Kurumi's claw attacks, then ominously says "I'll make you pay for this Ail!"

* * *

That afternoon, at the Moriya Shrine, Budou stands in the middle of the living room while she stares at Kanako and Suwako, then asks "alright, tell me again how exactly you get those burns?"

Kanako, who is in the kitchen serving Budou some rice, says "we already told you, we were having a little fight and decided to try some new spells."

Suwako who is setting the table for the little bat youkai, says "we overdid it just a little, but it's nothing to be concerned about."

Phredia flies from the rooms corridor and lands on to Budou's left shoulder, then she and Budou exchange doubtful glances, then Budou says "hmm, there's something weird about your story... but ok, I believe you."

Kanako smiles as she sets the food on the table on the living room, soup, rice, fish, juice and some grapes on a bowl, then smiles suspiciously perky at Budou, then says "thank you sweetie. Now, you enjoy your dinner while Suwako and I go deal with the tengu."

Suwako smiles naturally at Budou, pats her head, making the little bat youkai giggle, then says "this might take a while, so don't wait for us, alright?"

Budou sits next to the table, while Phredia flies on to the table itself, then they both bow to Kanako and Suwako, and Budou says "alright. Come back home safely. Oh, and thanks for the food."

Kanako tilts her head slightly to the right, while Suwako leans against Kanako's right, then Kanako says "you're such a sweet little angel. You're welcome. See you later~!"

Meanwhile, back at the resort, Ail, who is miraculously healed from Kurumi's bite and scratch wounds, and Sanae, are wearing the matching white shirts, and along with Yuka, Kurumi and Elly, they explore the right side of the beach, where the mountains and foliage are.

Ail, Sanae and Yuka are ahead, while Kurumi looks bored behind them, and lagging farther behind is Elly, who is biting her thumb while glaring at Ail, who happens to say something to make Yuka laugh at that very moment, though ignores the fact that Sanae and Kurumi also laughed at his joke.

She suddenly stops right in front of a fake palm tree, then growls as she says to herself "that blasted Ail, he's taking my Yukarin away!"

Elly gasps and stands stiff when a man's voice from her left speaks very suddenly, saying "you hate Ail too? Well, seems you and I have something in common after all."

Elly looks around, unable to find the source of the voice, but before she panics, the second time she looks to her left, she sees Guzman, though she doesn't know who he is.

He smiles at her while exploring her entire body with his eyes, then softly says "you truly are beautiful. You captivated me the second I laid my eyes on you."

Elly tries to speed her way to the others, but Guzman cuts her off and tries to get closer to her, forcing Elly to back away against the palm tree with a frightened face.

She trembles and stutters until she finally asks "wh-what do you want from me?"

Guzman gets his face close to her neck and takes a deep breath, then says "you smell nice. You're the perfect woman, you know that? How about you and I ditch those idiots and... get to know each other a little better. Maybe help each other out with our little... Ail problem."

Elly stutters again, her face slowly filling up with terror, then finally manages to say "I-I-I belong to Yukarin and no other, s-so back off!"

Guzman presses his face even closer, almost kissing Elly while tracing his finger over her bare left shoulder and staring into her yellow eyes, then stops.

In his mind, he hears the laughing child, the motherly woman, the child crying, and explosions, then drops on his knees while holding his head.

Elly thinks this is the perfect opportunity to run, but Guzman places his hand on her left thigh, preventing her escape, then looks up at her, tracing his eyes over her body before stopping at her face, and says "you know, the view from here is well worth the headache."

Elly can't take much more, and with a terrorized voice, she shouts "SOMEONE SAVE ME~ Yuka! Yukarin~! Kurumi!"

She starts to cry while rubbing her eyes, repeating "get away, get away, get away!"

While crying, Yuka's voice slowly drifts into Elly's ears, until she finally calms down enough to notice Yuka standing in front of her, staring with concern and some anger.

In an impulse, Elly jumps and hugs Yuka, shouting "Yuka~! This man came, and started touching me, and saying dirty things to me, and calling you an idiot and... and... He scared me~!"

Elly starts crying again, this time on Yuka's shoulder, and as expected, this really annoys Yuka.

Ail notices this and says "oy Yuka, don't be too rough. She's already scared enough."

Yuka ignores Ail, grabs Elly by her shoulder, pushes her against the palm tree, then slaps her across the face while staring casually and saying "you... are... a... youkai!"

Yuka slaps her one more time so hard, Elly falls on the ground to the right on her face, then Yuka finishes saying "so act like one already!"

Ail and Sanae stare terrorized at Yuka, Ail saying "that was the complete opposite of what I just suggested."

Yuka turns around to Ail, Sanae and the unamused Kurumi, then sighs and says "I think it's time we went back. These girls need their rest it seems."

Ail sighs and says "yeah, I guess you're right."

Sanae immediately adds "oh yes, I really could use a shower... And Ail, you can watch."

Like hitting the self-destruct button on a space ship from a movie, Ail's face turns red, his ears blow out steam, and there is another miniature nuclear explosion on top of his head.

Feeling a little weak, Ail stares at Sanae through a shadow on his eyes and asks "you're really enjoying this, aren't you?"

Sanae giggles, then jumps and hugs his neck, kisses his cheek, then says "quite! You're just too cute like this."

Afterward, Ail helps Elly up, though she reluctantly accepts his help, then he blinks and stares curiously at her, then at Kurumi, then asks "hey, those hand marks have been there all day. What happened to you two?"

Yuka smiles and giggles ominously, then says "they actually scolded me just because I went looking for some flowers and ended up fighting instead. I had to remind them who is the boss, so... I did _that_."

Ail sweats as he and Sanae stare nervously at Yuka, then he says "sucks to be them", to which Sanae nods and replies "youkai."

* * *

Later, just as night takes over the artificial sky, Ail and Sanae enter their room, looking a little tired, and while Ail takes the lunch basket to the small kitchen, Sanae drops on her bed while facing the ceiling.

Her mind slowly drifts away, her tired body slowly relaxes, and very soon she is barely awake, listening as Ail walks into the bathroom and turns on the shower.

To her, the sound of the shower seems to be very far away, then all of a sudden, she gasps and whispers "he's taking a shower?"

Just like that, she wakes up, then realizes Ail is sitting right on top of her, pinning her down while smiling.

She looks at him with surprise, then realizes the sound the thought was the shower, is actually the kitchen's tap water.

Ail opens a small gap where he puts his hand in and shuts down the water from the sink.

He quickly takes his hand back, closes the gap, then holds Sanae by her shoulders, making sure she can't move, and asks "so you thought I was taking a shower, you pervert?"

Sanae smiles as she looks up at Ail, giggles, then says "that's my line... you pervert."

Slowly, Ail bends down, closing in on Sanae's face, while brushing the right side of her head with his fingers.

Sanae giggles, then closes her eyes, readying herself to receive her well-deserved kiss.

Their lips get closer and closer, then stop when they are a mere half an inch away from touching, then they both scowl at each other.

Sanae softly growls, Ail sighs as he lets his head drop down, then they both seem to slowly get swallowed up into the mattress, then disappear.

For a minute, the rooms stays quiet and nothing seems to happen, then Kanako and Suwako reveal themselves from under Ail's bed, both looking a bit frightened, Kanako asking "where'd they go?"

Suwako looks all around the room, then says "Kanako, I think we-"

Before she can finish, the terrifying sad music from a music box starts playing out of nowhere, and both goddesses know this isn't a good sign, evident on the looks of their blue, terrorized face.

Suwako quickly shouts "they found us out again!"

Kanako rapidly replies "shut up and run!"

They turn around and find Ail and Sanae right behind them, pointing their index fingers at them, both focusing an immense amount of energy on the tip of those fingers.

Kanako and Suwako drop on their seats on the floor and push themselves back, away from the angry lovers, until they hit the wall.

The goddesses start to tremble, raising their hands to cover their faces, then Suwako, in a funny tone of voice, says "away put your fingers. We mean you no harm."

Ail and Sanae get closer, both smirking with jagged teeth and an ominous black shadow over their eyes, then turn their heads to the door when they hear Elly scream from outside "save me Yukarin~!"

Ail and Sanae look at each other, shrug, then return to terrorizing the goddesses before they can even think of escaping.

With a jagged toothed smirk and an ominous black shadow over his eyes, Ail asks "what should we do with them?"

With an equally disturbing face, Sanae replies "pain hasn't sunk the message in, so how about we do something a little different?"

Ail nods and says "alright, but we still have to punish them."

Sanae nods and says "yup. They need to be punished. Well, let's punish them NOW, then we do something a little different."

Kanako and Suwako hold each other tight as they shake violently, stare with white faces at their executioners, then their iris seem to split into rings as they tremble more violently when Ail and Sanae get closer to them, their shadows looming over the goddesses' bodies.

The entire room flashes with a rainbow of colors the moments danmaku shots echo all around, accompanied by the bloody screams of both goddesses.

Minutes later, both Ail and Sanae look surprisingly refreshed and happy, both apparently pushing down hard on something.

There is a click, then Ail says "alright, I'm done here", then Sanae says "ah, this one won't fit."

Ail gets closer to Sanae, who is holding a small pink box the size of both her hands put together, then says "oh, maybe she's just fat."

Inside the box is a mound of pink putty that seems to have a bit of blue hair coming from inside, and while trying to close it with a pink top, Sanae says "Kanako-sama, you're going on a diet. Ail, sweetie, add that to the note."

Ail smiles as he writes with a brush and black ink on a piece of paper, then says "already done."

From inside the box, Kanako tries to tell them something very obscene, but her voice sounds too muffled for Ail or Sanae to make anything out of it, so Sanae gets closer and asks "what's that? Push harder? Good idea!"

After Sanae finally closes the small box, Ail says "oh, we must have used all the ink on them. We'll need to get more."

Later, at the Moriya Shrine, Momiji knocks on the front door of the shrine, calling "Tengu Mail Delivery Service! Package for miss Budou~!"

Budou opens the door with a sleepy face, rubbing her eyes while moaning and asking "wha? What is it, miss Momiji?"

Momiji gasps and covers her mouth, then says "I'm sorry if I woke you, but Ail and Sanae sent you a package from the resort. They paid to have it delivered immediately."

Budou rubs her eyes again, moans, stretches, yawns, then recovers and says "it's alright then. Still, I wonder why didn't he use his gaps?"

Momiji hands over a large box half the size of Budou herself, asks Budou to sign on a clip-board, then salutes Budou and says "thank you for choosing Tengu Mail Delivery! Have a pleasant evening. Oh, and sorry again for waking you."

Budou simply nods while yawning again, then Momiji darts away.

Budou inspects the box, then uses the tiny claw on her hand top open the tape at the top.

She opens it and grabs the letter inside, then, after Phredia flies out of her chest and sits on her right shoulder, she reads "_dear Budou, sorry to ask this of you, but please keep these two on your sights for as long as you can. They've already ruined quite a few love scenes. Also, there's a treat for you on the purple box we hope you'll enjoy. Love, Ail and Sanae. P.S. Use any means necessary to keep them away from us, please. And Kanako needs to be put on a diet._"

Budou tosses the letter away and opens the purple box.

Inside are some well wrapped large cups of grape sundaes with orange slices, which wake up Budou with a smile, and underneath those is a white t-shirt with a cute drawing of herself imprinted on it.

Phredia uses her magic to take the sundae cups into the newly installed fridge, while Budou looks at the shirt and says "aww, this is so cute. Now, let's see... pink boxes?"

Under the purple box are Kanako's and Suwako's pink boxes, Suwako's being a bit smaller.

Budou stares at the boxes, and as if knowing what's inside, she exclaims "wah... I don't believe this!"

Immediately, Budou grabs the boxes, then opens both by throwing them as hard as she can against the ground just outside the shrine, then both Kanako and Suwako pop right out of them, wearing only their underwear, a fundoshi and their sarashi.

Ail and Sanae also painted various targets around their bodies with points on them, the head and center of their spine being one hundred points, and their stomachs and limbs being fifty.

Suwako manages to pick her hat from the ground, even though she's in a daze, then says "aauu~ we're finally out of there."

Kanako looks at Suwako and says "y-yeah, but that felt awful. Like someone just... tossed... Erm, do you feel that ominous aura around here?"

Unaware of their situation, Budou's shadow slowly creeps above them, smirking with jagged teeth, and having a pair of glowing aquamarine eyes glaring down on them.

Suwako looks at Kanako, gulps, then says "Kanako... I think were at the shrine."

Kanako gulps loudly, then she and Suwako turn around to see Budou's massive ominous shadow looming above them, saying "so, you've been bothering papa and mama, even though you _swore_ to me you'd leave them alone?"

Moments later, Suwako is riding on Kanako's shoulder as the goddess runs on the water of the lake, using inexplicable vines to swing behind logs and avoid massive exploding sound waves and danmaku bullets and lasers.

After avoiding five more sound waves, Suwako says "run, yes run! Feel the nature flow around you!"

Kanako shouts "shut up, or I'm tossing you over there!"

Behind them are the enraged Budou, who shouts "COME BACK~! Leaving a poor defenseless girl like me all alone, just to ruin mama and papa's vacation! Come back and take care of me this instant!", and Phredia, who continues to supply Budou with more energy than needed.

* * *

Meanwhile, moments before Ail and Sanae discover the goddesses, Elly is on the ground floor, pacing around after having taken out the room's trash, wearing a pair of white shorts and an open white jacket over her bikini.

She looks up to Ail and Sanae's room, growls softly, then says "stupid Ail, playing dumb while taking my Yukarin away! I'll kill him. I will! Yuka is mine, and I am Yuka's. It's fate!"

She quickens her pace, stops, then looks at Ail's room again, then says "but he's taking her away from me, then plays the good guy, taking advantage of my situation. Helping me out while I'm confused, just to make himself look cool in front of Yuka! I've had it! I'm taking my scythe and... oh that's right, I left it home!"

Elly gasps and stiffens when she hears Guzman's voice from behind her, saying "I can help you kill him. All you have to do is ask... and give me something in return. Though, I take all payments in advance."

Elly turns around with a frightened face to find Guzman standing behind her next to a large brown turtle shell, wearing only a pair of swim shorts, making sure she takes a good look at his perfectly fit body.

Elly stares at him for a moment, gulps, then her cheeks turn pink as she says "awawawa... I mean, th-thanks, but no thanks, I c-can handle this myself!"

Guzman takes one aggressive step forward, causing Elly to take a few sudden steps back, making her take a step into one of the hot tubs behind her and falling on her back.

Before she hits the unforgiving ground, Guzman is already holding her and carrying her on his arms, making sure to place his hand under her jacket, then smiles wickedly at her and whispers "well, I could get used to this. How about you?"

Elly's face turns bright red as she stares back at Guzman, then suddenly screams "save me Yukarin~!"

There is no response, yet Guzman doesn't even seem worried at all after her loud screaming.

Out of desperation, Elly manages to place her legs on Guzman's left arm and use it for support, and with a bit of an impulse, she flips backward, escaping Guzman by leaving her jacket hanging on his right arm, and when she lands on the ground, she prepares herself to fight and says "you are really pushing your luck, human! I am a youkai, and believe me, I rather kill you than even think of kissing you!"

Guzman ignores her and takes a deep breath while placing Elly's jacket against his face, then says "you'll be mine before you-"

Guzman stops speaking when the sound of exploding danmaku and the scream from a girl and a woman from Ail's disturb the peace.

From her own room, Yuka shouts "Elly, shut the hell up before I go there and smack you one!"

Elly's face turns red with rage, the top of her head looks like it just popped up with steam, then she prepares her own bullets, looks at Guzman, then realizes he is long gone, taking her jacket with him.

Elly clenches her teeth, stomps furiously on the ground, then looks up at Ail's room as he and Sanae exit it, holding some small boxes on their hands.

In her blind rage, Elly growls "Ail~!", then starts jumping up floors, using the railings to lift herself up and jump to the next floor.

Only two more floors to go, Ail is in her sight, she has her danmaku ready to attack, and when she takes the jump, a hand grabs her by the throat and pulls her to the balcony.

Yuka, who wears her pink sleeping robe and hat, smiles at Elly as she squeezes her neck, then says "my, Elly, what are you doing? You should be using the elevator, I mean, we are on vacation, aren't we?"

Elly can only cough as she tries to explain herself, but Yuka's grip is too tight, so the flower youkai pulls her closer and asks "what was that? You need to be punished? Sure, I'll happily punish you."

There is a bright flash on the fourth floor balcony, then a loud thud. Elly lies on the ground with white eyes and a burned throat, while Yuka dusts her hands and casually walks back inside the room, then causally says "wake me up again, and I'll rip you in half. _Good night~._"

As Yuka enters the room again, Kurumi, who is wearing her usual attire, walks out and sighs after looking at Elly on the ground.

She bends down, pulls a handkerchief from her right pocket, then starts cleaning Elly's neck with the drool that coming from her slightly open mouth, then says "Elly, you are acting stranger than usual. What's the matter with you?"

Elly suddenly wakes up and excitedly says "it's AIL! That bastard has been sending this hot and bulky man to seduce me, ohh, but I can see his game! He wants me to forget about my Yukarin so he can have his WAY with her!"

Kurumi stares at Elly with pity, then asks "did you hit yourself on the head too hard again?"

Elly grabs Kurumi by her shoulders and desperately says "Kurumi, you HAVE to help me! Let's kill that Ail! O-once he's dead, that hot man will stop chasing me, and Yuka, you and I will live happily ever after, ah~!"

Kurumi stares at Elly with pity and disgust, then sighs and relaxes, then nods and says "that bastard did insult me, so yes, I will help you."

Elly embraces Kurumi, then says "thank you, thank you so much! With your help, we'll take down that EVIL Ail!"

Kurumi hugs Elly back, and says "there, there, just calm down. He'll be out before you know it."

While she says this, she smirks mischievously while she unties the back of Elly's bikini-top, leaving it lose enough for it to fall on its own.

Elly stands up and says "ah, let's go inside, so we can plan an ambush", then follows after Kurumi, but not before yelping and holding her bikini top, which falls right off her the moment she takes her first step.

* * *

The next morning, at the Moriya Shrine, Budou sleep with a very content face, and with her arms wrapped around Kanako's and Suwako's necks.

The goddesses are still in underwear, and both look as though they've been through a garbage compactor, or worse, and every time either one tries to move, Budou tightens her grip to the point of cracking their necks.

Suwako manages to look at Kanako, then whispers "so, did you get it?"

Kanako smirks, then pulls the camcorder out of nowhere, then winks and whispers "this should be good enough footage, although some more wouldn't hurt."

Suwako smiles, then whispers "we still missed the chance of getting her while swimming."

Kanako sighs, then replies "well, if things keep going as they are, we might have a chance at the lake."

Budou tightens her grip again, then Suwako grunts and whispers "if things keep going as they are, we won't have necks anymore."

Meanwhile, down at the resort, Sanae wakes up on Ail's bed, while Ail is still sleeping with his upper body down on the floor, and his legs hanging on by the edge of the mattress, wearing a black pajama.

She looks around and rubs her eyes, then pushes the covers off, revealing her white, long pants pajamas with dark blue borders.

She looks at Ail's feet, sighs, then says "another ruined night."

An hour later, when the sun starts to rise over the holographic mountains, there is a knock on their door.

Ail is finally awake and cooking breakfast, but when there's the second knock, Sanae, who is just behind him, says "tag", then she tends to breakfast while Ail goes to the door.

The moment Ail opens the door and looks down slightly, he smiles and exclaims "Nitori, how are you? Hey, you look better than the night we came here."

Nitori giggles, then says "I told you, I was just sleepy! Just came to see how you were doing."

From the kitchen, Sanae exclaims "we've had some trouble with a couple of uninvited guests, but they've been taken care of."

Nitori sighs, then says "the gods. If you want, I can have their unlimited passes frozen until you leave."

Ail narrows his eyes while absorbing the information, then says "oh, so that's how they've been entering. Those sneaks!"

Sanae quickly says "no, it's alright Nitori. Care for some breakfast? I'm almost done here!"

Nitori bows, then says "I must respectfully decline. I've already have had my breakfast. Besides, like I said, I only came by to see how you were doing."

Ail and Sanae look at each other curiously, then Nitori chuckles, smiles nervously, then says "see, this is an experimental couples-only room. It's made especially for a couple's perfect getaway."

Ail looks at Sanae as she hums while placing the scrambled eggs on the plates, then whispers "no wonder we've been so playful lately."

Nitori giggles, then says "well, it was the only room available. You see, I am going to close the resort soon and I wasn't accepting any more guests, but when the little bat and the goddesses said it was for you, I couldn't decline."

Ail smiles back at Nitori, then remembers something and asks "hey Nitori, how did you manage to make all this? Those holograms, the flawless sky simulator, that beach, everything. It's just so advanced!"

Sanae suddenly adds "what's more, you've managed to make a successful water recycling system."

Nitori laughs, then says "that's a secret~! ...But seeing as you are friends, I can tell you this. Ever since we started working with nuclear power, I've managed to learn a few things, and with that, this came out."

Ail smiles, then says "you'd give the scientists and inventors back home a run for their money Nitori."

Nitori giggles again, then looks inside the room and notice Sanae is looking at Ail rather funny.

She gasps and covers her mouth with both hands, then relaxes again and says "ah, it's time for me to go check on the other guests. Do enjoy your stay."

Ail smiles and waves at Nitori, then says "alright. You take care, and hope we see you later."

Nitori turns to start her walk to the elevator, but turns around to wave at Ail before leaving.

As the door to the room closes, a glint and a crescent smile escape Sanae, and just after it closes, Sanae can be heard roaring and pouncing on Ail, making him yelp at first out of fright, but then kissing noises and pink hearts come out the door.

Nitori's eyes glint, accompanying her crescent smile and snickering, as she says "the light aphrodisiac works perfectly!"

Meanwhile, at the beach's right end, Elly looks up to a concentration of palm trees and asks "are they ready?"

From above the trees, Kurumi replies "oh yes, this will do alright."

Elly's eyes glint, she claps her hands, then rubs them while snickering and saying "alright. Operation 'Eliminate Ail' may commence."

* * *

Later that morning, Ail, who is wearing black swim trunks and a red unbuttoned plaid shirt, and Sanae, who wears a blue one-piece swimsuit with a frill around the waist, and an open long sleeved white jacket over it, make their way to the beach.

They are surprised when they notice a large concentration of men grouped together on one spot, then Sanae asks "what's going on over there?"

Various men from the center are suddenly sent flying to the air, then Yuka's voice wins over the ruckus as she shouts "another one of you dares lay a hand on me, and I'll blast every last one of you until the ashes are gone!"

Elly quickly adds "Yukarin is MINE! Touch her again and I'll kill you AND eat you!"

Suddenly, the group of men panic and disperse all over the beach, where their partners are all waiting to beat them up to a pulp.

While the women chase and beat down their men, Ail and Sanae approach Yuka, then Ail casually asks "hey guys, what's up with all that just now?"

Kurumi, who wears a blood red one-piece swimsuit, and Elly, who wears the same bikini as the day before, both glare at Ail, then Elly angrily says "it's none of your business! Besides, it's all taken care of!"

Yuka and Ail ignore Elly, but Sanae sends a powerful glare at the youkai that makes her feel a strong chill, then says "watch how you speak to him, youkai."

Elly takes two steps back, smiles nervously, then nods rapidly.

Yuka, who wears a white bikini with black vertical stripes, looks casually at Ail and Sanae, then says "it seems these dogs have never seen a real woman. They were even drooling all over."

Kurumi approaches Yuka, points at her chest, then happily says "it's these bouncy and slimy things. Though I don't blame them. Even at her age, Yuka-sama looks good in a bikini, don't you think?"

Without warning, with a very friendly smile on her face and a vein pulsating on the left side of her forehead, Yuka grabs Kurumi by her wings, crushes them, then throws her with all her might to the deepest parts of the water.

Ail gasps and exclaims "Yuka, dammit, she's a vampire!"

Yuka frowns, lifts Ail by the back of his shirt, then says "then go save her", and throws him straight at the blonde vampire.

Ail screams at first out of surprise, but quickly recovers and flies straight at Kurumi.

The blonde vampire screams at the top of her lungs, crying as her long life flashes before her very eyes, and when she feels she's losing momentum, she cries "I don't wanna die like this~!"

Just as she starts taking the dive, Ail reaches her and catches her, saying "I got you!", using his body as a shield and protecting her from a small wave, then rises high enough in the air to make the vampire feel comfortable.

When Kurumi realizes she's not vaporizing, she looks at Ail, gasps and smiles, then screams "YOU SAVED ME~!", and almost immediately, she gives him a tight hug around his neck while reddish hearts fly out the back of her head.

After reaching the shore, Ail flies all the way to Yuka with a pair of crumpled bat wings on his back.

Sanae stares at him and asks "did you get her?"

Ail has a defeated and slightly annoyed face, making Sanae think he failed, but he sighs and turns around, revealing Kurumi is quite well, clinging on the back of his shirt and contently nibbling the back of his head while reddish hearts keep popping out the back of her head.

With a defeated stare, Ail says "she just won't stop nibbling."

Sanae prepares a giant paper fan to strike Kurumi off, but she stops when Kurumi stops nibbling and says "you saved me~! You are my eternal ally, and I will aid you and your loved ones from now on!"

Yuka smiles as she stares at Ail, then says "oh my, it seems you gained an admirer."

Everyone laughs, though Sanae doesn't take her suspicious eyes off Kurumi, and from farther away, Elly bites down on her thumb and roars inwardly, then says "Ail, Ail, AIL! I'm going to kill that idiot!"

Parsee peeks her wicked, smiling face from under the sand next to Elly, then slowly sinks back down, chuckling as she does.

* * *

Later that day, the group decides to continue their exploration of the artificial beach, and find themselves right where they left off the day before; right next to that palm tree where Elly met Guzman.

While Ail and Sanae eagerly head forward, Kurumi, who seems to be infatuated with Ail, and Yuka, who is holding Kurumi before she sucks out more blood form Ail's head, follow after the two humans, keeping their eyes straight on them.

Again, Elly lags behind them all, but this time she does so with a suspicious smirk.

When she reaches the familiar palm tree, she hides behind it and watches as Ail and Sanae make their way forth.

With a wicked smile, she whispers "one more step... come on, just one more... THERE!"

The youkai grabs a rope that's been painted the same color as the palm tree's trunk, then pulls hard on it while snickering and whispering "can't say I'm sorry, miss Sanae, but it's best you BOTH go down."

A giant golden washtub falls silently from the sky straight toward the unsuspecting couple, and when its shadow is cast on them, and Ail and Sanae look up, the couple gasp and flinch at the sight.

Kurumi flies just above them and back-flip-kicks the giant washtub with all her might, sending it back at Elly.

The former gate guard quickly realizes what just happen, and after shouting "you little traitor!", she ducks in time to avoid the washtub, which stops just above her and falls on her back.

It takes her some time, but after finally getting halfway out from under the giant washtub, Elly looks up to Kurumi, snarls, then says "that idiot! She fell for his charm! Dammit, I knew something like this would happen so I prepared! Enjoy your last moments of life AIL... while you can."

She throws a fist on the sand, then feels as though something is lose, so when she looks down, she realizes her bikini top is missing.

She yelps loudly, then quickly gets back under the washtub, digs around, then comes back out, wearing her bikini top again, smiling and saying "ho ho~, that was embarrassing. Ah, too bad Yukarin didn't see."

Elly swiftly resumes following after the others, unaware that behind her is Guzman, holding out his hands above his head, spreading his finger as though ready to grapple her, yet standing like a statue with an angry red face.

Blood comes out of his nose, his face as the side of the washtub marked perfectly, and after growling, he whispers "I hate washtubs so damned much."

Meanwhile, at the Moriya Shrine, Kanako and Suwako are sneaking around the courtyard, hiding behind bushes, poles, and trying to blend with their surroundings as best as they can, all to avoid being seen by Budou or Phredia, who keep patrolling the skies, as though waiting for a foolish escape attempt by the goddesses.

The skies are clear once again, so the goddesses look at each other, nod, then make a run-for-it.

They are already home-free, far away from the shrine, the waterfall is in their sight, and all they have to do is jump down to reach their goal, but they both feel as though they suddenly hit their faces against one of Kanako's logs and fall down on their backs on the ground, hitting their heads hard against it.

Suwako is the first to open her eyes, scowls, then shouts "Kanako, what's the big idea?"

Kanako is still holding her forehead and clenching her eyes shut in pain as she asks "uuu- What are you talking about?"

When she finally opens her eyes, she notices one of her largest logs is on the way, and standing on the log are Budou and Momiji, who is receiving a chicken drumstick from Budou as payment.

Budou looks down at the goddesses with an evil grin, while Momiji wags her tail and eats her drumstick behind the little bat, then says "did you think I'd trust you after what you did? I prepared for everything. There's no way I'm letting you get to mama and papa again!"

Kanako springs up on her feet, raises her fist, and says "we'll see about that!", then jumps on Suwako's back, making her squirm in pain, then shouts "to the shrine's command center take me!"

Suwako trembles as she tries to get up, but just falls back down and mumbles "you... fat cow. Get off!"

To their dismay, Phredia is already blocking the way back to the shrine with a powerful golden barrier, and while Suwako finally manages to get up, after Kanako gets off her, she says "dammit, this girl is devoted."

Kanako turns around to demand Budou to let them go, however, Budou's eyes are already glowing aquamarine, and she's already set a wall of stationary light-green laser orbs all around herself, all ready to shower the goddesses with beams on command.

Kanako smiles confidently, then says "alright Budou, I know you're trying to help those two, but since you insist in getting in our way..."

Kanako summons her logs to her back, then Budou snaps her fingers, the orbs start firing curtains after curtains of scattered laser beams, Budou reveal a long set of claws on her hands, then jumps in after the lasers, smiling as she does, then rips Kanako to shreds while she and Suwako are being blasted over and over by burning laser beams.

Later that day, Kanako is walking around the kitchen, wrapped in bandages from head to toe, looking like a mummy, except for her hair, as she serves Budou one of the grape sundae cups Ail and Sanae sent her.

Suwako is full of burn marks all over her body, and is keeping Phredia comfortable, fanning her with a straw fan, looking depressed as she does.

Budou sighs contently, then says "see? All is well when you behave."

Both goddesses stare at Budou, but lack the courage to reply to that statement.

* * *

Back at the artificial beach, Yuka and Kurumi are returning from the mountain, while Ail and Sanae enjoy some alone time on its top, enjoying each other's company, as well as the peaceful view.

Kurumi looks very happy as she says "they make a very nice couple, don't you think?"

Yuka groans and replies "it's disgusting. They should get a room already."

Meanwhile, Elly is hiding behind some thick foliage that's set in front of the foot of the mountain, covered in burn marks, knife cuts, bumps on her head, and green paint stains.

Behind her is Guzman, who looks infinitely annoyed, sharing some of Elly's wounds, standing next to a brown turtle shell.

Elly looks back at him and says "now remember, if this works, I'll grant you ONE wish."

Guzman seems to recover, smiling as he places his eyes all over Elly's body again, then says "you already know my price. You're lucky I didn't follow my policy, though."

Elly sighs and whimpers, then says "f-fine. I'll apologize to Yukarin and tell her you forced me to give you my body. Yes, that should work... Now, time to kill~!"

She pulls a large black remote control form her bikini top and pushes on a black button, then peeks through the tall grass.

Ail and Sanae holds their hands while letting them hang just below their waists, while gently bumping their foreheads together and looking at each other.

They continue to smile and whispering sweet nothings, and ignore the giant polished log covered with sharp metal spikes and blades that falls three feet away from them and rolls down toward Elly and Guzman.

Ail and Sanae give each other a tender kiss, ignoring the powerful vibrations from the rolling log, then Sanae softly asks "do you feel something?"

Ail softly replies "it's probably nothing."

The log rolls down the steep mountain, picking up more and more momentum, and all Elly says to the unaware Guzman is "tch, failed! Again!"

Guzman stares at Elly with hungry eyes, ready to lay his hands on her, but he starts feeling the vibration from the rolling log and asks "so, where exactly did you set that trap?"

Elly continues to look at the spiked and bladed log as it rolls straight at them, then calmly says "on top of the mountain. Though, I should have set it a little higher."

Guzman stares at Elly with pity and disgust through a black shadow in his eyes, and after a sweat drop rolls down the left side of his face, he starts walking away and says "I'll be other here if you need me."

Sounding uninterested, Elly says "mm-hmm, fine", then slowly realizes the danger she's in.

She stares at the log, thinks, stares some more, then finally gasps in horror and runs to the left, but the log rolls right over her, then crashes against the holographic wall, where some robots immediately come to incinerate the log and fix the wall from the damage.

Losing her left eye and full of cuts all over the top of her body, Elly twitches while staring up at the holographic golden sky, then says "th-th... that hurt."

Guzman walks to her, looks down at her with an angry face, then says "ok, that's IT! You are just a MORON! All you do is completely half-assed, you don't think things through, AND on top of THAT, you can't even comprehend when you are in danger! I am through with sexy idiots like you! Geez!"

As he walks way, he shouts back "no WONDER you precious '_Yukarin_' hates you so much! Such an IDIOT!"

After Guzman leaves, still grumbling to himself, Elly sits up, ignoring the pain from the gashes, cuts and holes, then looks around with her right eye and whimpers "Yu... Yukarin hates me?"

She looks down on the sand between her bleeding thighs, then sniffles and repeats "Yukarin hates me?"

She starts to sob, tears fall down her right eye, while her left eyes starts to recover a little too rapidly, then very suddenly she starts bawling while crying a waterfall of tears from her right, and another of blood from her left, and shouts out loud "I'm such an idiot~!"

Ail and Sanae come walking from the mountain side, while Kurumi comes from the beach side, right from where Guzman left off to, then they all sigh at the sight of Elly.

Ail approaches the youkai, while Kurumi uses a glass to collect the gushing blood, then asks "so, are you going to stop these murder attempts?"

Elly stops crying, and while Kurumi drinks the blood form the glass, she asks "what, you knew?"

Ail nods, and while Kurumi coughs and says "blech, melodramatic," he says "I don't know why the hell have you been trying to kill me, but if you keep that up, I'm letting Sanae hunt you down."

Sanae smiles ominously at Elly as a glint escapes her eyes, then Ail says "the giant washtub Kurumi kicked, the flamethrowers I gapped away, the flying knives and daggers Sanae blew away, the acid paint, the exploding coconuts, and that badly positioned log. I mean, what the hell is your problem?"

Elly can't help herself and quickly jumps to Ail, give him a hug, somehow activates his Yozoragan blood limit, then cries "Yuka likes you so damned much *sob* and she hates me, even though *sob* even though I do everything for her~!"

Ail's right wing reacts and heals Elly's body, though doesn't restore her broken swimsuit.

Unaware of what's happening, Ail sighs, give Elly a very light hug back, then says "this again. Look, she doesn't hate you! If she did, you wouldn't be alive right now, and you know it! And stop thinking she likes me like that, because she DOESN'T. I mean, she did try to kiss me once, but that's in the past!"

Sanae glares dangerously at Ail, holding her gohei with both hands while smiling, yet Ail fails to notice this, pushes Elly off of him, then says "look, I have no idea how to make Yuka acknowledge you, but acting so recklessly and treating yourself like garbage isn't going to help!"

Elly stares at Ail's starry-night eyes, then suddenly starts crying louder, covers her face, then runs away, forgetting about the large tear on the back of her bikini bottom.

Kurumi stares at Elly, then says "well, she's going to attract some attention now."

Ail turns to Sanae, ignoring the dangerous smile on her face, then sighs and says "I tell you, that girl has some real issues."

Sanae grabs Ail by his open shirt, pulls him closer, then asks "what was all that about Yuka trying to kiss you?"

Ail looks into Sanae's eyes, realizes something is wrong, then stutters nervously.

Sanae smacks him with her gohei on the head, then flies away with a smile on her face, saying "time to hunt some youkai~!"

Kurumi walks to Ail, who is rubbing his head, then says "very interesting things happen around you. By the way, those wings look good on you."

Ail smiles, rubs the steaming red bump on his head, then says "thanks. At least she only tapped me this time."

* * *

Later, in the afternoon, Yuka, Elly and Kurumi make their way back to their room.

Yuka is covered in bruises and burn marks, her swimsuits is torn in a few places, yet looks greatly delighted, going as far as giggling and blushing while saying "now THIS is what I call a real vacation."

Elly looks depressed and angry, and even shoots a few glares at Yuka through a thick black shadow that's cast over her eyes.

She's now wearing a wine colored jacket to cover herself up, and Kurumi, noticing what's happening, asks "so what's the jacket for? And why do you look so miserable? And why are you covering yourself form Yuka? I thought you wanted Yuka to see you half-naked."

Elly seems to be in another world, and simply grumbles incoherently to herself.

Meanwhile, at Ail and Sanae's room, Ail lies on his bed, relaxing after their day, thinking of going to the pool next, while Sanae is very entertained, looking slightly drunk and full of bruises and burn marks, her swimsuit broken in a few places, yet she looks very happy.

She sits on a small, retractable study table that sits on the far end of the room, pointing her gohei at a miniature wind gust spiral.

Ail finally breaks the silence and asks "hey Sanae, how about we go to the pool next?"

Sanae's reply is a strange giggle, and a content sigh.

Surprised at her reply, he lifts is body to look up, then sees the slightly drunken shrine maiden is missing, so he lifts himself up some more to look at the bathroom door, thinking she's there.

The door is closed, but the light is off.

A quick chill takes his heart, and sounding a bit worried, he asks "Sanae, are you there?"

He looks around the room for a few more seconds, then Sanae jumps from the other side of her bed, like a raging tiger pouncing on its pray, then roars when she lands on Ail.

From outside the room, Ail can be heard shouting "ahh, she's going to eat me! I mean, _yay_~?"

Sanae is heard replying "Yuka's sake was great. Here, have a taste."

Suddenly, pink hearts start flying out of the door, which seems to open just slightly.

Julia exists the adjacent room, saying to herself "this room is clear. Now to the... oh?"

She looks at the hearts that fly out of the room's slightly open door, and to her eyes, a translucent Koishi is standing there, looking inside with Kanako's camcorder, drooling with a red face and a wide smile.

She looks back at Julia, seemingly surprised, then smiles, winks presses her finger against her lips, then lets out a soft and long "shh~", then continues her perverted venture.

Julia looks away, sighs, smiles, then says "I'll let lady Nitori know her new room is a raging success for couples", then starts walking to the elevator, ignoring the peeping satori youkai.

* * *

Meanwhile, Nitori enters Guzman's room with a wide smile on her face, holding on to another white cowboy hat, this one with a black hatband with autumn leaves prints on it.

Guzman lies on his bed, looking dreadful, holding his head as though he's suffering from a powerful headache.

Nitori fills her face with great concern when she looks at him like that, then asks "are you alright?"

Guzman smiles when he sees Nitori, then says "my mind's like scrambled eggs right now. Hurts too."

Nitori suddenly smiles and says "this should fix it", and presents the hat to Guzman.

The vile human looks at the hat with longing, then asks "you made another one, just for me?"

Nitori nods and says "this one will fully negate the effect of that psychic attack. You'll hear the voices, but this will make sure your head stays where it needs to be... so no more getting beaten to a pulp while out there."

Guzman sits on the edge of his bed and gently accepts the hat, softly saying "thank you so much, Nitori. I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again."

He puts on the hat, and it immediately takes a brown color, while the new band turns white, though the leaf prints stays the same, and sounding a bit more sinister, he says "you truly are... a good friend."

Nitori giggles, then jumps on Guzman, who actually holds her from falling, kisses his left cheek, then says "I am so glad to have a friend like you! You're not afraid of my inventions, or tell me they'll explode for no reason."

The kappa can't contain herself and ends up giving the human a hug, failing to see the sinisterly vile smile on his face.

Meanwhile, up at the Hakurei Shrine, Rika, Suzaku and Reimu are at the living room, Reimu standing in front of Rika and Suzaku, while they both kneel before her, though Suzaku looks more like she's resting on the floor.

Reimu crosses her arms across her chest, then, in a stern tone of voice, she says "Rika, you have recovered nicely, even with those weird accidents you've been causing every time I call for you."

Rika blushes, then says "I-I'm trying to master it, my lady."

Reimu can't hold it and lets out a quick chuckle, then clears her throat and says "alright, sorry... Anyway, you do know you deliberately ran away from me, worrying me to no ends and making me chase you all over. I decided that this time, I won't be as forgiving, so I'm going to have to punish you."

Rika and Suzaku wince at the sound of that word, then Reimu continues "so, as your punishment..."

Rika nervously await for what her mistress may have in store as punishment, then Reimu finally finishes "you are going to the Palace of the Earth Spirits, and you are going to make sure everything is peaceful down there. Maybe help them with anything they might ask."

Rika lifts her head, looking both excited and nervous, then asks "my lady, does this mean that...?"

Reimu nods and says "I want you over there first thing in the morning. Don't worry about breakfast, I can manage on my own... and you may take Suzaku with you, if you like."

Rika stares back at Reimu with a light smile, containing the urge to smile even wider, then Reimu says "oh, and make sure that sapphire yin-yang is visible. You are representing the Hakurei Shrine after all", and smiles.

Rika can't contain herself any longer, and without warning, she jumps on Reimu and gives her a surprise hug around the neck, loudly saying "thank you, my lady~!"

* * *

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Budou and Phredia were created by Willie G.R.

Rika Onkamikami and Suzaku the Vermilion Bird were created by Snapshot2010

OCT 02 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Ah, fells good to make a chapter JUST for laughs. Next ones should be more balanced, though do be ready, for the story is starting to pick up again.**


	12. Chapter 12

Reimu wakes up to a chilly morning at the Hakurei Shrine, and immediately after stepping out of the warm shrine, she realizes it's far more than just chilly, hugging herself tightly to try and keep warm.

She looks around the shrine and notices the trees are almost completely leafless, and that a lot of the fallen leaves have already been picked up, but finds no signs of Rika or Suzaku.

She quickly enters the shrine, saying "that girl is just too reliable. I hope she has fun. I know, I'll make her a little something for when she returns."

At the entrance of the cave to the subterranean, Rika stands with Suzaku on her shoulder, looking inside as though waiting for something.

She looks at Suzaku to her left, then asks "are you sure about this?"

Suzaku stares at Rika with her right eye, then replies "you told me I could choose, Rika-sama. I chose to come with you."

Rika smiles, then says "I'm kind of glad you did. I'm a little nervous."

Suzaku tweets as a reply, then Rika looks inside the dark cave a little longer, takes a deep breath, then says "alright, here we go."

She takes braves steps inside until she's completely out of sight, then a familiar voice is heard all over the nearby area, shouting "IT'S RIKA~!"

Inside the cave, Rika and Suzaku find themselves stuck on one of Yamame's web, while the spider youkai hangs upside-down, rubbing her cheek against Rika's and saying "welcome, welcome! Oh, I'm so happy you came! You can meet Kisume now!"

She notices Suzaku stuck just beside Rika, points at her, then asks "is she for eating?"

Suzaku squawks with surprise, while Rika giggles nervously and says "no, she's my familiar. Um, could you get us off these, please."

Yamame gasps with surprise, placing her left hand over her open mouth, then smiles and grabs Rika, pulls her free, and as she grabs and frees the nervous Suzaku, she says "sorry about that. Now, stay here while I go get Kisume, ok."

Rika accepts Suzaku from Yamame's hands, smiles, nods, then says "sure thing. We'll wait."

Still upside down, Yamame quickly rises to the dark ceiling, disappearing from sight, while Rika helps Suzaku clean off some of the stuck web from her feathers.

Suzaku looks at Rika, then says "master has some... interesting friends."

Rika giggles and replies "don't worry. They are all very nice people. You just need to get to know them better."

Suzaku nods, then she and Rika yelp with surprise when they hear a little girl crying "no~! I don't wanna~!", and Yamame replying "come on, I promise, you will love her! And she's got a pretty, **and** tasty looking bird with her too."

Suzaku opens her white eyes wide with surprise, while the little girl gives up and replies "ok... B-but just a 'hello', then I'm gone."

There is a moment of silence, and outside, a cloud seems to cover the sun for a moment, making the inside of the cave even darker, causing Suzaku's eyes to be the only thing visible for a moment, and finally, after the bit of light returns, Rika, Yamame, Suzaku and Kisume all scream when they find each other face-to-face.

They all seem to run away from each other, and there is a loud crack, accompanied by Kisume's scream.

After recovering from the shock, Rika turns around while taking a few breaths of air and says "so-sorry about that... W-wasn't expecting that!"

Yamame, who is on the ground, slowly gets back up and laughs while saying "ha hah, that... that was really fun."

She gets up on her feet and looks around, then calls "Kisume~! Kisume, come on out. He heh, poor thing must be trembling over by the ceiling."

Suzaku tweets, then they all hear a girl whimpering on the floor nearby.

Rika notices a destroyed bucket on the floor, then asks "hey, what's that?"

When Yamame realizes that it's Kisume's bucket, she opens her eyes wide in a panic and shouts "ack, that's Kisume's bucket! Quick, help me find her!"

Yamame looks all over the floor, calling out for Kisume, looking around the narrowest gaps between the rocks she can find, then she suddenly hears Rika moan and say "I'm so sorry. I tried to fix it, but I just made it smaller."

Yamame turns around to look at Rika, then asks "what are you talking about?"

Rika holds Kisume's fixed bucket on her hands, however, it's much smaller than before. Rika sighs and says "it's so small. Miss Kisume will be upset."

Rika feels a tug on her skirt, and when she looks down, she see's Kisume staring up at her with a frightened, yet curious face.

Rika squeals with glee and exclaims "my, what an **adorable** child!"

Yamame chuckles nervously, then says "that's Kisume."

Rika blinks a couple of times, looks at Suzaku on her shoulder, then back at Kisume on the ground, then bows and says "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude."

Kisume tugs on Rika's skirt again, then points at the bucket.

Rika, almost crying, says "I'm so sorry miss Kisume. I tried to fix it, but I ended up making it smaller."

Yamame smiles, and sounding quite content, she says "trust me, you just made her a huge favor."

Rika stares at Kisume again, slowly sets the bucket beside her, then takes a step back.

Kisume jumps into her new bucket in a flash, moves around it, then stops to stare at Rika while red hearts float from her head and pop just an inch away.

Somehow, she ties the rope to the ceiling again, rises to look Rika in the eyes, then suddenly gives her a hug, causing the jewel on Rika's sword to glow blue.

Yamame smiles, then says "you see Kisume, she's not so bad. And miss Rika, you just got yourself a new friend."

Rika giggles and smiles, returns Kisume's hug, then says "I am so glad to be friends with such a cute young lady."

Suzaku tweets again, earning herself a pat on the head by Kisume, then Yamame joins the hug, knocking everyone down, shouting "spider pile~!"

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Kappa-pa Resort, Ail and Sanae enjoy a somewhat quiet moment at one of the pools on the left side of the resort, Ail wearing the red swim trunks, while Sanae her blue bikini.

Taking advantage of the artificial sun, Kurumi lies on a comfortable-looking pool chair, far away from the water, happily "sunbathing" in her little white bikini, and this time, there are no hand marks on her body.

Yuka wears the red plaid swimsuit, and is just floating on the water, sighing contently and repeating "I'm a lily. I'm floating on the pond."

Elly wears a wine colored one-piece swimsuit that fits her just right.

She sits on a chair next to Kurumi, looking angrily at nowhere, pouting and softly asking "when the hell are we leaving?"

Yuka floats to where Ail and Sanae are, tilts her head backward, stares at them with a content look on her face, then asks "my, you two look radiant? Did you finally do it?"

Both Ail's and Sanae's faces turn bright red, both smile and chuckle nervously, and both have their eyes hidden under their hair.

Finally, Ail says "eh~, whe-whether we did or not shouldn't concern you."

Sanae sighs and relaxes, then quickly adds "we had to take out another intruder."

Yuka lets herself sink underwater, then springs back up, getting Ail and Sanae wet, then gets between them, places her arms around their necks, then winks while saying "if you keep that up, you'll get old in just a couple of thousand years, and then you won't want to."

Both get slightly annoyed, and Ail quickly changes the conversation, asking "hang on, you are being way too playful. Who did you kill?"

Yuka smiles and tightens her arm around Ail's neck, then asks "you want me to kill you, don't you?"

She lets go of Ail and Sanae, looks up at the holographic sky, then says "I'm actually very friendly, but it's been a long time since I had a good sleep. That's why I've been more edgy than usual."

Ail and Sanae both look at Elly as Yuka continues "without Elly trying to jump on me while I sleep, I had a full night's rest. Really, it was very refreshing."

The couple can see a dark ominous shadow on Elly's hate-filled face, and the brief moment she glares at them, both feel a strange chill that makes them shiver.

Yuka happily leaves the couple, saying "I'm gonna go float some more over here. You two have fun~!"

Ail raises his hand, trying to get Yuka's attention, but she completely ignores him. Sanae looks at Ail and asks "hey, Ail... did you feel that?"

Ail glances over at Elly and watches as she starts trembling while growling, then nods and says "I smell trouble."

Meanwhile, up at the Moriya Shrine's courtyard, Kanako kneels on the ground and holds the camcorder with a tiny screen open, while Suwako stands next to her. Both drool as they look at how Sanae and Ail roll over and over, both eating each other away with kisses while trying to dominate each other.

Suwako suddenly asks "where do you think she learned all that?"

Suddenly, the sounds from the camera change from kissing noises, to Koishi screaming while trying to run away, breathing heavily and crying after falling down, then screaming again when Sanae asks "_what's this? They sent someone else this time?_"

Kanako looks at Suwako, then says "too bad she got caught. And maybe Sanae learned all that from those magazines she liked so much?"

Kanako turns the camera off just before Sanae strike the screaming Koishi on the head with her gohei in the video image, then Suwako smiles with a glint on her eyes and asks "wanna check her room and see if she still has those?"

Kanako's smile becomes a crescent smirk, then glints spark over her eyes as she excitedly says "they're in her closet!"

From behind them, with an angelic smile and a sweet tone of voice, Budou asks "you aren't thinking of invading mama's privacy, aren't you?"

Kanako and Suwako twitch, then slowly turn around to look at Budou's angelic smiling face looking up at them, with Phredia smirking wickedly while sitting on the little bat's left shoulder.

Kanako stutters, but Suwako manages to save their necks, saying "us? No way~! We were just reminiscing about the past, when we lived in the outside world."

Budou seems to buy it, as she and Phredia start smiling more naturally, then she says "oh~! Well then, I guess I was just being paranoid. See you later then."

After Budou leaves to the shrine, Kanako sighs with relief, raises her right thumb up, then says "good job."

Suwako raises her right thumb, winks, then says "now, let's get those magazines."

They take the first step toward the shrine, then a golden sound waves comes from behind them and paralyzes them.

Budou jumps at them with aquamarine glints in her eyes, a crescent red smile, and with sharpened, long claws bare and ready.

* * *

Back in the underground cave, Rika, Suzaku, Yamame and Kisume make their way to the hole that goes straight down to Parsee's bridge, and the Ancient City.

Rika turns around, bows to her friends, then says "thank you for escorting me."

Kisume slurps and smacks her lips, while Yamame rubs her belly and picks her teeth with an old bone, then says "no; thank YOU for that delicious meal!"

Rika giggles, nods, turns around again, then hops into the hole, quickly activating her flight ability to descend at a comfortable pace.

About six minutes later, she finally reaches a long wooden bridge with red railings, and right after landing, Suzaku rushes forth, saying "I'll make sure it's safe, master."

Rika raises her hand, wanting to tell her to wait, but then retracts her hand and says to herself "it's probably for the best", then takes a step forward.

She stops in place and raises her tiny wings from the surprise scream of a woman up ahead, followed by some heavy rumbling on the bridge itself.

When she looks ahead, she sees Suzaku flying fast back to her, but looking quite calm, and Parsee chasing after her with glowing green eyes, clenched teeth, shaking her fist in the air, and shouting "come back! I'll teach you to scare me while I'm being properly jealous of someone!"

Rika casually stares at Parsee and Suzaku, and just as Suzaku lands on Rika's shoulder, Parsee trips and falls on her face just inches away from the shrine maid.

Rika is already extending her hand to Parsee, smiling friendly-like and saying "ah, it's miss Parsee. How are you?"

Parsee raises her reddened face to Rika, accepts her help, and after dusting herself, she points at Suzaku and shouts "that pervert peeked under my skirt while I was being jealous of the oni!"

Rika looks at Suzaku as the bird says "it was just an accident. I didn't see her and flew between her legs, then she started chasing me around."

Rika turns a curious face to Parsee, smiles, then says "Suzaku says it was an accident, and she apologizes for disturbing you."

Parsee stares at Rika, then at Suzaku, then back at Rika, bites her thumb, growls, then says "you can read her mind too! Grr, and you're not even a satori! I'm so jealous!"

Rika looks curiously at Parsee, then says "but I can't read her mind. She just speaks telepathically, that's all."

Parsee gasps, stares at Suzaku, then looks back to Rika and says "so, you get to have a really cool pet all to yourself? That's just so unfair~!"

Suzaku and Rika look at each other with confusion, both shrug, then Rika says "well, I'm sorry to just leave, but I need to get to the palace."

Parsee is suddenly standing to Rika's right, smiling and pointing forward, saying "alright, let's get going!"

Rika and Suzaku stare at Parsee, then the jealousy youkai blushes while looking forward, and says "I-I-I'm just bored!"

Rika giggles, but keeps quiet and starts walking forward, while Suzaku says "this is becoming more and more interesting by the minute."

Right after she says that, Rika gasps and opens her eyes wide, and at the same time, Parsee and Suzaku, though Suzaku does so telepathically, ask "what's wrong?"

Ahead, just before the bridge's end, stands Yuugi, drinking her sake while leaning her back against the bridge's railing, looking a little bored. Rika rushes to her, making Suzaku fly off her shoulder, drops on her knees, surprising the oni, then shouts "I'm so sorry~!"

Yuugi blinks twice, looking very confused, while Rika remains kneeling and bowing on the floor.

* * *

After staring at Rika for a few more seconds, Yuugi smiles, smacks her left thigh, then exclaims "it's Rika from the surface! Hey~, how 'ya doing? I see you're back to normal!"

Rika continues to kneel and bow as she says "miss Yuugi, please accept my most sincerest apologies for what I did to you! There is no excuse for my actions, but know that I am truly sorry."

Yuugi stares curiously at Rika, bends down, grabs her by her shoulders, lifts her up without effort, and after making sure she and Rika are making eye contact, she smiles and say "listen to me, you weren't yourself! You, like everyone else, were going through a rough moment."

Yuugi places Rika back on her feet, pats her head, though a little too roughly, then says "now, stop apologizing to me and tell me what are you doing here today."

Parsee quickly answers for Rika "she's going to the palace. I'm going with her to make sure everyone is properly jealous of her little bird!"

Suzaku suddenly perches on Parsee's head, then rapidly pecks her hard.

Parsee runs around in circles, screaming curses at Suzaku, then Rika looks surprised at them and sternly calls "Suzaku, get off her head this instant."

Suzaku flies straight back to Rika's shoulder, saying "but she's being mean to you, master", and when she lands, Parsee gets close, points at her beak, then says "you are so lucky you're that girl's pet, or I'd have you for dinner!"

There is a sudden and loud cracking noise, then Yuugi says "whoops. Aww darn, and this was my favorite one too."

While Parsee points at Yuugi's broken sake cup and covers her mouth while chuckling, Rika approaches Yuugi, lifts her hand, then asks "may I have a look?"

Yuugi looks a little confused, but hands over the large red sake cup with the star designs, which is now broken in half, then says "gluing them back together doesn't work. makes the sake taste terrible. Still, thanks for your concern, but I'll just have to get another one again."

Parsee smiles wickedly while placing her right arm over Yuugi's left shoulder, then says "clumsy oni keeps breaking her cups, doesn't she."

Yuugi, looking calm, but sounding a bit agitated, looks at Parsee and says "shut up, bridge princess. It's not funny."

Rika suddenly stand up with the sake cup fully restored, surprising Yuugi after presenting it to her, saying "done~!"

Yuugi stares at the fully restored sake cup with awe and surprise, noticing that not even the crack in the center is visible, then very slowly and gently, she accepts it while staring at it some more.

Rika smiles and says "and I made it stronger too. I'm not sure how much it will hold, but now it should be hard to break, even for you miss Yuugi."

Yuugi wraps her right arm around Rika, presses Rika against herself, lifting her off the ground and making Suzaku fly off the maid's shoulder, then loudly says "thank you! Thank you so much! This was... is my favorite cup! But how?"

Rika feels the air in her body being squeezed away, then suddenly her sword's jewel starts glowing blue.

Parsee stares at the glowing jewel, and right after Yuugi sets Rika down, giving her the chance to breathe again, she asks "what is that? How come your sword glows like that?"

Rika takes many deep breaths of fresh air, then finally recovers and says "mi-miss Yuugi, I synthesized a mineral used on the metal from my home, and that glow, miss Parsee, means Yuugi considers me a friend."

Rika recovers fully, places her left hand on her chest, bows her head, lifts it again with a smile, then says "and I consider this a great honor, miss Yuugi."

While Parsee glares at Rika with glowing green eyes, Yuugi smiles and flips her right thumb up, then Suzaku perches on her horn.

Parsee smirks, thinking Yuugi's about to get pecked, but instead, Suzaku lowers her head and allows Yuugi to scratch her left cheek with her fingers.

Parsee gets closer to Yuugi and Suzaku, glares closely at the bird, then ominously says "you are despicable."

Suzaku pecks Parsee's forehead without warning, then returns to getting scratched by Yuugi, looking quite content while doing so and ignoring Parsee's rapid cursing.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Kappa-pa Resort, Nitori guides Ail, Sanae, Kurumi, Yuka and Elly to what looks like a large area of racing tracks on the farthest right side of the surprisingly large resort; one track seems to be for flying, one for horses, one for what Ail assumes will be cars, one for plain running, and all can see how robots are working on taking a peculiar track toward the beach water.

Nitori quickly says "it's not finished, but once it is, this will become 'The Racing Stage', where the guests can come and race anything they like. Flying, running, mechanical airplanes, boats, and... well it's not finished, but you may use the zipper rings now if you like. They make you fly a whole lot faster for a brief moment."

Nitori looks away with a glint escaping her eyes while thinking "and this way I can test if they work as they should."

Ail stares suspiciously at the strange golden rings floating in the air, then says "I don't know... How safe are these?"

Nitori gasps and opens her mouth wide, thinking "he already caught on~!", but before she can answer, Kurumi excitedly flies under Nitori, getting the Kappa on her back, then shouts "piggyback flying~! Come on, let's see who can beat THIS little, fast vampire!"

Kurumi takes flight, heading straight toward the first ring, while Nitori screams "wait, I haven't tested it yet~!", then they both increase their speed when they pass through it.

Ail sighs and says "I knew it", but before long, Sanae jumps on his back and shouts "HYA~! Come on Ail, you can beat her!"

Ail looks rather miserable and tries to complain, but Sanae kicks his ribs and forces him to take flight with herself riding on him.

As they reach the first ring, Sanae kicks him again and shouts "come on Ail, use your wings!", forcing him to activate his Yozoragan limit the second they touch that ring and suddenly zip forward.

Yuka stares at them with excited eyes and says "that looks like fun!"

She turns to look at Elly, then says "come on Elly, get in position."

Elly turns her face away toward the beach and grunts, then angrily grumbles "go by yourself!"

Yuka stares at Elly with a bit of surprise in her eyes, but quickly smiles and says "good idea... Dual Spark!"

Yuka splits in two, one looking like her old self, with the strange pair of wings on her back and wearing her regular clothes, while the other still has her swimsuit on, but has long hair.

The two Yukas glare at each other, have a small fight inside a thick cloud, then the swimsuit Yuka ends up riding the winged Yuka, kicks her ribs, then shouts "HYA~! Fly hard, like you mean it!"

The other Yuka groans, then says "that's the last time I go soft on myself!", then takes flight, entering the ring and zipping away and both Yuka's screaming as though with fright.

Elly now stands alone on the tall white platform that will soon lead to the rest of the racing tracks below, looking away from her friends and toward the beach, thinking "this was a stupid idea. I want to go back home... then I'll go back to Mugekan and... just stay there, I guess."

She sighs, then turns around with a dangerously aggressive glare when that now-familiar man's voice says to her "if it isn't the sexy idiot, all alone in this lonely platform."

Elly snarls at Guzman, who wears a pair of black swim trunks, then says "whoever the hell you are, get the ***** away from me before I lose my temper!"

Guzman grins, scoffs, then says "well, she's got some fangs... I like that."

Elly raises her hands to chest height, and seems to stretch her fingers, her eyes begin to turn redder, her teeth look larger, and after making herself look fiercer, she shouts "last warning, meat bag!"

Guzman tips his hat, though it's to make sure it's secure and won't fall off, bows to Elly, then smiles and says "I'll have you know, when I target someone, particularly hot women... well, I get my way eventually."

Elly rushes wildly at Guzman, aiming to rip his neck, but finds herself being held by her wrists, kicked on her abdomen, then sent falling over the protective railing and on her face on some sharp rocks on the bottom of the other side.

Guzman uses the momentum to roll backward and back on his feet, smiling and anxiously awaiting for Elly's return.

* * *

Right on cue, Elly jumps back to the platform with her forehead full of blood form a cut from the rocks, where Guzman awaits her, slams a fist on her abdomen and forces her against the floor.

Elly grabs his arm, pushes his fist off her belly, then pulls hard, forcing Guzman to tumble forward, then she bends her knees and makes sure to hit his face as hard as she possibly can, even flinching after his face hits her knees.

Guzman roars with pain, holding his face with his hands, while Elly flips back on her feet and launches a grappling hand on to his shoulder, sinking her nails on his shoulders until blood starts to run down his arm, then angrily whispers "I warned you, you human garbage! Now your damned life is _mine_!"

Guzman groans in pain, doing his best to re-accommodate his bloody nose and take Elly's nails away from his arm before she rips it off, then quickly manages to activates his ring after faking a grope attempt that makes Elly loosen her grip, and clapping his hands hard.

After activating the ring, he grips her wrist and twists until there's a light crack.

Elly quickly lets him go before he breaks her wrist, then glares at him while asking "what the hell? How can you be that strong?"

Guzman holds his arm for a moment, then the ring does its job and his wounds starts healing fast, then smirks and says "wouldn't you like to know? Now, I'm going to have to make you pay for hurting me like that. Hmm, what should I do? Oh yes, I'll accept your body for payment."

Elly growls, returns to her fierce look, though the blood on her face makes her look more like a tired and wounded animal, then whispers "just die already."

Elly throws her left hand at Guzman, making it look like a large, fleshy spike, but having activated his ring gives Guzman an edge over her. He sways to the right just before her attack touches him, grabs her wrist again, twists it until it cracks, then takes her arm and bends it backward, forcing her to whimper while he presses his entire being against her back.

He places his smiling face next to hers from behind, then whispers "you're mine."

He suddenly gasps, lets her go, kicks her back so she falls on her face, then disappears from sight, using the mirror cloak he skillfully puts on after taking it out of his trunk's pocket, his steps sounding loud as he heads back to the beach, almost tripping on a large brown turtle shell on the road.

Elly trembles as she gets up, then yelps loudly when she tries to push herself up with both arms, pulling her left one away and pressing it against her chest as she slowly gets back up.

After standing straight, she slowly lift her arm into view, then admires her broken wrist, staring as her hand dangles in the air and her skin start turning purple.

She looks to the beach and asks "good riddance. Still, I wonder what scared him off?"

As if waiting for her to ask, Kurumi and Nitori pass through the last ring, screaming their lungs out, Nitori shouting "it's too fast~!"

Almost immediately, Kurumi and Nitori come crashing straight to the platform, though miss it by an inch, and end up skidding on the road down to the beach, stopping just before the turtle shell.

Next come Ail and Sanae, and Ail, after feeling the exaggerate increase in speed, opens his ethereal wings and manages to stop just before crashing on the platform.

Sanae jumps off his back and on to the platform, then quickly notices Elly's broken wrist, gasps, then exclaims "Elly, what happened to you?"

The two Yuka's cream at the top of their lungs the second they touch the last ring, and crash on to Ail's back so hard, he's sent flying above the still recovering Kurumi and Nitori, screaming at the top of his lungs before finally skidding to a halt on the sandy road.

Sanae approaches Elly, but the youkai pulls her arm away from Sanae and shouts "I'm fine! I'm not a human, dammit! I'm a youkai! This is nothing at all!"

The Yukas suddenly glows gold as they get closer to Elly, then merge just before the light dims, and finally only one Yuka remains, who asks "Elly, why are you mutilating yourself?"

Elly growls and shouts "I said I'm fine, god dammit!"

Both Yuka and Sanae gasp, and as Ail, Kurumi and Nitori slowly approach the platform, all staring concernedly at Elly, Yuka sternly says "Elly, stop acting like a child! If you have issues, DEAL with them, but you watch that tone when addressing to **me**!"

Elly wants to shout back, but instead looks away and mumbles, then walks away to the beach, bumping her left shoulder against Ail's right and wincing in pain when her wrist starts throbbing sharply again after the bump.

Ail looks back, sighs, then looks at Yuka and says "you know, you need to talk to her, I mean, calmly. She needs you, Yuka."

Yuka stares straight at Ail, then suddenly smiles.

Kurumi shrieks, runs to Ail, grabs him under his highs and holds him above her head, sitting him on the crown of her head, then shouts "Ail's in danger! I must save him!"

She notices Yuka, Sanae and Nitori all staring at her with confusion, then she starts to cry waterfalls and shout "I'm sorry miss Yuka~! I made a pact~!"

She starts running while flapping her wings, screaming "run away~!", while Ail tries to jump off, shouting "Ku-Kurumi, calm down! Just calm down~!"

Yuka, Sanae and Nitori all stare at the terrified vampire carry off the boy on her head, running zigzags over the road, then Yuka calmly says "wow, she just took off with your man."

Sanae gasps, but before she replies, Nitori narrows her eyes and says "yup, she's pinching him."

Sanae immediately takes flight, shouting "you little cheat of a hot and sexy blonde vampire, get your hands off my man!"

Yuka and Nitori now sit on a reclining pool chair each, drinking sake and eating roasted meat while watching the scene unfold.

Nitori takes a gulp from her tiny cup, then says "one foot-rub to the green haired maiden to win."

Yuka chuckles, then says "you're on!"

* * *

Meanwhile, down at the Subterranean, Rika, Suzaku and Parsee arrive to the Palace of the Earth Spirit's front gates and stand there while staring at the doors.

Rika looks at Parsee and asks "so this is the Palace of the Earth Spirits? Looks wonderful."

Rika continues to look around, while Parsee smirks at her, then notices a signs that reads "Chireiden", so she smiles and says "ah, Chireiden sounds a little more cozy, don't you think?"

Parsee shrugs while looking uninterested, then says "it means the same thing, so who cares."

Suzaku gently nips Rika's ear, then says "master, we better go in."

Rika sighs, nods, then says "well I'm knocking first. It's rude to just barge in."

Rika approaches the doors, lifts her hand and prepares to knock, then Parsee kicks the door open and shouts "hey~! We're coming in~!"

Rika and Suzaku look at Parsee with shock and great surprise, a drop of swear rolling down the left side of their heads, then Rika exclaims "miss Parsee, that's not very lady-like, or very polite for that matter!"

Parsee looks back at Rika, looking uninterested, then shrugs and says "I'm not trying to be lady-like, or polite...", then smiles with malice and asks "are you... jealous?"

Rika shakes her head and stomps on the ground, then says "no~! You should have let me knock at least!"

From the immediate right, a girl exclaims "it's Rika~!"

When Rika, Suzaku and Parsee turn to look, a black, two-tailed black cat with red fur on its underside, jumps on Rika's free right shoulder and starts purring and rubbing its face against Rika's cheek.

Somewhere deep inside the palace, Satori abruptly stops walking and gasps with a terrorized look on her face, then rapidly whispers "Rika... She's here!"

Back at the foyer, Rika and Suzaku stare at the cat as she continues to rub her face against the maid's, then Rika asks "um, did-did I do something?"

Parsee snickers and says "that Orin seems to like you. You are liked by an ominous black cat. So perfect."

Orin jumps off Rika's shoulder and stands in front of Parsee, turns into a human with a flash, then points at Parsee and angrily says "hey, don't you dare pick on Rika, or I'll bite you!"

Rika tilts her head with confusion while staring at the girls, then asks "excuse me, but what are you talking about?"

Further inside, Satori runs to her study, panting loudly with every step, enters the room, closes the door, then starts rubbing her forehead while sighing and looking at the ceiling.

She says to herself "alright, calm down Satori. Last time was just a freak event. It won't happen again..."

She closes her eyes and inhales deeply, then exhales, finally stands up straight, then readies to open the door.

She opens her eyes and tenses up, stiffening up like a statue when she realizes Orin, Rika, Parsee and Suzaku are all in the room, all standing in front of her and looking straight at her.

Orin smiles and runs to her petrified master and pushes her toward Rika while excitedly saying "Satori-sama, Satori-sama, look! Rika is here! Miss Rika, say hi to Satori-sama!"

Rika giggles, then she and Suzaku bow at the same time, Suzaku keeping herself on Rika's shoulder quite skillfully, then Rika says to the petrified girl "miss Satori, sorry for intruding, but miss Reimu asked me to come. Hope it's not a bad time for visiting."

Feeling utterly defeated already, Satori calms down, lightly bows, then says "n-not at all. Welcome to my mansion. Erm, and I see you came to see that everything is going well down here."

Rika gasps and takes a step back, then smiles and says "that's amazing! Well, since you already know, it's it alright if I have a look around, right?"

Satori sweats and smiles, thinking "at least she's sweet about it. This should be no problem."

Suddenly, without knowing who, Suzaku speaks to her though telepathy, saying "a satori. My, it's been a while since I've seen one. Hi."

Satori looks around, feeling a bit confused, and asks "Orin, did you say something?"

Orin shrugs and shakes her head, then Suzaku says "over here, miss."

Again, Satori looks around with confusion, then notices Suzaku on Rika's shoulder, gasps, then says "what a beautiful creature? Is he yours, miss Rika?"

Before Rika answers, Suzaku says "my name is Suzaku, and I'm a girl."

Satori blinks twice, looks to Parsee, then to Rika, then to Suzaku, then asks "m-miss Rika, can your bird... can miss Suzaku speak?"

Rika truthfully answers "no, she can't", then Suzaku adds "it's telepathy. My, I thought a satori like you would know the difference."

Satori stares at Rika and Suzaku, twitches, smiles disturbingly, then says "we-welcome to the palace."

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the Kappa-pa Resort, Ail and Sanae sit inside a hot tub, holding each other close while drinking some juice and sending sudden kisses at each other.

They hear a door open at the building in front, and watch as Kurumi and Yuka exit their room, all dressed normally, carrying a few bags with them.

Elly exits last, looking bitter, and with her left hand wrapped in bandages.

Ail and Sanae smile and wave at the girls, but only Yuka and Kurumi respond, Yuka shouting "remember Ail, if you don't visit me, I'm visiting _you~_!"

Ail shivers with fright, but Sanae holds him tight and calms him down, then they both stare at Elly, her bitter face making both feel scared and sad.

She turns a frightful glare at them, sending a chill to their hearts, then shouts "I'm FINE! I'm a youkai, not a fleshy human! Hmph!", then makes her way to the elevator, where Kurumi makes sure the doors don't close on her.

Ail sighs, feeling warmth returning to his heart again, and says "she's going to do something very stupid soon, and she won't accept help from anybody. Only Yuka can get through to her, but she's just too stubborn!"

Sanae sighs, though sounding a bit frustrated, grabs Ail's chin, then says "I already told you, I'll help you with that problem! Now, why not focus on me and... for the love of-"

Ail grows and loudly asks "can't we just have ONE moment for ourselves?"

The couple split apart and turn around to find Kanako and the hatless Suwako bowing on the ground and crying with fright.

Kanako desperately says "you have to help us!"

Suwako quickly adds "we'll destroy the copies, make all the interruptions up to you, make your OWN private resort, just please, _PLEASE~_!"

Kanako rapidly adds "Budou's been on our heads ever since you sent us in those boxes! She's even enlisted the tengu!"

Sanae and Ail raise their left eyebrows at the same time, and sounding suspicious, Sanae asks "alright, what's this all about?"

Almost to tears, Suwako shouts "she's raked out faces off five times already!"

Kanako adds "she's paralyzed us and made us pose in our underwear!"

Suwako adds "she made us rub her feet!"

Kanako adds "and Phredia keeps making things worse!", to which Suwako finishes "she keeps giving Budou more and more energy! It doesn't END~!"

Sanae stares at the goddesses with disbelief, then says "wait a minute! You mean a sweet little bat totally destroyed two powerful and wise, and somehow perverted, goddesses like you two?"

Ail starts to laugh hard, and while laughing, he manages to shout "oh, I can't WAIT to see my little Budou again! She's probably recorded it all!"

Sanae smacks Ail on the chest, then looks back at the goddesses, then asks "if we help you, will you at **LEAST** give us some alone time when we ask? No sneaking into the room, no trying to videotape or photograph us?"

Both goddesses bow down again, raising their backsides high while bumping their heads on to the ground, then say in unison "we promise!"

From behind the goddesses, a girl and a boy rapidly shout at the same time "Dog Sign, Rabies Bite!"

Both goddesses rise up with sharp stars for eyes, then start screaming and running around while Momiji and another male white wolf tengu bite down hard on their backsides.

Ail and Sanae watch unblinking as the two goddesses run around, then run straight to the exit, Kanako shouting "she's going to kill us~!"

Ail laughs heartily, while Sanae looks worriedly and exclaims "come on, we better go up there."

Ail stops laughing and splashes the water with his hand, saying "aww, I wanted to stay until night."

Sanae gets out of the water, angrily saying "come on", while Ail just stares at her.

He finally shrugs with a smile on his face, sighs, then says "might as well. Budou should be editing that video right now anyway... Should be ready when we get there."

He jumps out of the hot tub, grabs his towel, then rushes to the elevator after Sanae.

He stands next to her and presses the button to close the door, and when the door open up on their floor, the couple are already kissing and giggling.

They make their way to their room kissing, spinning, giggling, looking at each other in the eyes and locking lips again, then somehow open their room's door with their elbows, enter it, close it with their feet, then red and pink hearts start floating from the door while kissing noises exit the room.

The kissing and the hearts suddenly stop and are replaced by two angry sighs, then Sanae exclaims "so that's where she left Pyonta!"

Ail quickly adds "geez, they better make it up to us as promised!"

Sanae quickly adds "they really are perverted gods!"

* * *

Meanwhile, back at Chireiden, Satori escorts Rika and Suzaku to the dining room, all while being accompanied by Parsee, who refuses to leave, and Orin, who won't stay away from Rika, not even for a second.

Satori stares at the girls, sighs, then says "and here's the dining room. I'll prepare us some lunch, so if you be so kind as to-"

Orin quickly says "wait, why not let miss Rika make lunch? Okuu and petal LOVED those grilled steaks miss Rika cooked for them."

Satori stares sternly at Orin and says "now, now Orin, we can't have a guest... wait, what did you say?"

Satori now stares at Rika and Suzaku with horrified eyes and says "bu-but I... when did Okuu... I mean, how? I haven't seen Okuu all day!"

Okuu and Petal suddenly burst through to left door, Okuu raising her left hand in the air and shouting "Rika's cooking~!"

Petal looks up at Okuu, mimics her movements, then says "Rika's wooking~!"

Suzaku flies on Okuu's head, then angrily says to her "that's not the proper way to teach this child!", and pecks her head three times.

She waits for Okuu to stop running in circles, then says "and another thing! You should teach her to speak properly! That poor dear's potential is going to waste, all thanks to your bad parenting!", then pecks Okuu five more times, making her scream "sorry, I'm sorry my liege~!"

Satori continues to stare with those terrorized eyes while asking "wait... my liege?", then slowly notices how Orin, Okuu, Petal, and all her pets flock around Rika and Suzaku.

She starts to tremble, then suddenly straightens up, smiles in a most disturbing manner, then thinks "i-it's just their nature... Yes, they just like her. It's not like they're going to-"

Orin hugs Rika, then loudly says "I wish Rika-sama would stay here!"

Those words trigger a bit of jealousy from Satori, which makes the jewel on Rika's sword glow light green for a second without anyone's notice, then sighs and thinks "Satori, she's just being nice... yes, if you read her mind..."

The moment she reads Orin's mind, she gasps when all she sees in there is Rika, looking like an angel, holding massive plates filled with meats of all kinds, each cooked differently, all juicy, and all while Orin herself rubs her face on Rika's legs, swooning while drooling at the smell of the food.

Satori's left eye and left side of her lip twitch in unison, while Parsee looms all around her, smiling wickedly with glowing green eyes and waving her hands all around the satori maiden, all while Satori herself thinks "I must get her OUT of here!"

She's suddenly brought out of her own thoughts when Okuu loudly calls "Satori-sama, your lunch is getting cold!"

When Satori realizes it, the table is set, the food is prepared, and Rika smiles at her from the end of the table, offering the main chair and saying "please, I don't mind at all, just enjoy the food, miss Satori."

The satori youkai is not sure how to react, again events happen and she didn't even take notice of, and now Rika is taking her pets away.

Thinking fast, Satori smiles, though looking a bit unnatural, then bows her head and calmly says "I apologize for my pets, miss Rika. They are very kind, but I fear their stomachs rule out their judgment."

Rika giggles and flaps her wings, then says "it's alright miss Satori, I don't mind."

Everyone in the room save for Suzaku all blush at the sight, and Satori, Orin and Okuu have a simultaneous nosebleed, now all sharing an equal droplet of blood dangling from their left nostrils.

Rika shrieks with worry at the sight and asks "my goodness, are you alright? What happened?"

Satori chuckles, then looks at Rika with a more natural smile and says "it's alright. It's nothing", all while Parsee looks disappointed at the satori maiden.

While Satori walks to her chair and sits to enjoy her meal, she thinks "she really is a good girl, this Rika. I can't believe I got so jealous of-"

When she looks at Rika again, she finds Orin, Okuu and petal, all in their animal forms, all on Rika's lap and free shoulder, while she and Suzaku eat quite contently, all while the jewel on the sword glows bright blue twice.

As Satori continues to stare, the jewel on Rika's sword glows again, though this time light green, and for a brief second once again, but nobody, except Parsee, who sits right in front of Rika, notice this, also noticing the source of said jealousy, with a wicked smirk on her face.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the palace's study, Koishi sits on a tall chair, resting her head and arms on the desk in front of her, all while looking angry and occasionally rubbing a large red bump on her head that sizzles as though on fire when touched, making her wince and whimper.

She pouts and looks up at the ceiling, then says to herself "stupid Ail and Sanae. Didn't even let me in on the fun. ...Idiots!"

_She remembers when Ail and Sanae had her captured, stripped down to her underwear, and tied up to one of the beds with her legs and arms spread, all after having poked the large red bump on her head. _

_She blushes and swoons, then softly asks "what are you going to do to me?", then sounding naughty, she asks again "mmm, what ARE you doing to do to me?" _

_With glints in their eyes, Ail and Sanae smile wickedly at her, then Ail sinisterly asks "what should we do, honey?"_

_ Sanae takes a large white feather on her right hand, and sounding equally sinister she says "let's play with her for a bit." _

_Koishi starts to tremble, her cheeks turn pink, then she shivers as she says "please be gentle!" _

_She suddenly finds herself laughing uncontrollably while Ail and Sanae tickle her armpits and exposed belly with a pair of large white feathers, all while snickering and occasionally kissing each other, making Koishi jealous of them._

Returning from her thoughts with an annoyed look, she sighs, then says "I guess it couldn't be helped."

Now she smirks mischievously, then chuckles as she says "heh heh~, at least I got a good deal out of it."

_She remembers arriving at dusk to the Moriya Shrine, looking almost depressed and sighing, all while holding the camcorder on her right hand._

_ Just before she walks through the gates to the shrine's courtyard, Suwako and Kanako jump from the bushes to her left with stern faces, then Kanako asks "they caught you?"_

_ Koishi nods, then Suwako angrily says "we told you to be careful! Geez, did you at least get a good shot?"_

_ Koishi's face completely changes; she smiles wickedly, almost seeming vicious, then nods. _

_The goddesses get excited, but Koishi ends their joy very abruptly by raising her left hand and saying "BUT, you do realize THIS will cost you extra, right?" _

_She points at the red pulsating bump on her head, then Kanako quickly asks "how much?"_

_ Koishi smiles again, then says "the agreed amount should do. However, I also want you two to be my sexy party servants for three parties. No matter when, or how, you two will show me and my guests some cute and sexy things."_

_ Kanako and Suwako blush, and sounding very agitated, Suwako shouts "no way, no chance in hell! I don't care what's in that camera, I'm not..." _

_Both goddesses stare at the camera Koishi dangles in front of herself, narrowing her left eye as she does, and with expectance in her voice, Suwako asks "how much did you get?"_

_ Koishi smirks and replies "thirty minutes... give or take a few minutes here and there."_

_The goddesses are very tempted. _

_This little youkai has accomplished far more than they have._

_ Suwako gulps, looks at Kanako, who looks back at her, then they both nod. Kanako sighs, then says "alright, you win. But if we don't like it, it's going to be only ONE party." _

_Very sure of her work, Koishi tosses the camera at the goddesses with a confident smirk, then says "oh you'll love it, I'm sure."_

_ Suwako takes off her hat and pulls a brown sack her own size, filled with gold and coins, then gives it to Koishi. _

_The satori youkai looks inside the bag to make sure everything is in there, smiles, then says "excellent. I'll raid that bakery!" _

_She turns around, holding the bag as though it doesn't weigh at all, then says "see you soon. Oh, if you don't want to wear underwear for the parties, I won't mind."_

Koishi comes back from her thoughts again, now smiling and drooling while resting her head on the desk, then says to herself "oh yeah~! That cake was so worth the pain! Heh heh he~!"

The front door suddenly opens up, Koishi lifts her head with a curious look, then gasps and says "oh, it's you! Miss Rika!"

Rika stands on the doorway with Orin, Petal and Okuu behind her, and Suzaku on Orin's shoulder, and all look back at Koishi, then Rika exclaims "oh my, miss Koishi, what happened to you?"

* * *

A few minutes later, Rika sits on a large red sofa in the middle of the study room, with Koishi's head on her lap, gently patting the red bump on her head while her hands glow with mint light.

Around them are Orin, who is in her human form and patting Suzaku's head, while the red bird perches on the couch's backrest.

Okuu, who is in her human form as well, trying to read a book with Petal, who is in her bird form on Okuu's forearm, both just below Rika and Koishi.

From the desk, away from Rika and her pets, Satori stares to the couch while Parsee looms around her, snickering and saying "ooh~ so jealous. My goodness, this is amazing."

Satori notices Rika healing Koishi, and thinks "this is getting out of hand. I need to get that girl out of here! If this keeps up, Koishi's gonna start-"

Before she finishes her thought, she realizes Koishi is speaking to Rika, saying "...and that's when they started to tickle me! Geez, and there I was thinking I was about to have a good night, and all I get is tortured!"

Rika sighs, then replies "you poor thing. I'm going to have a word with those two. But you know, you did invade their privacy."

Koishi giggles and causes the jewel on the sword to glow bright blue for at least six seconds, startling the girls a bit, then they all laugh and continue what they were doing quite casually.

Satori realizes Koishi is spilling her guts out to Rika; this is the last straw, Satori loses her usual calm self, and with Parsee increasing her jealousy, she is completely blinded.

She stands up so abruptly, she knocks the chair she was sitting on to the ground, storms her way to Rika and Koishi, and with tears hanging from her eyes, she shouts "Koishi, what the hell is this? You told me you didn't remember how you got that bump!"

Koishi looks causally back at her sister, shrugs, and bluntly replies "I didn't want to tell you."

Satori glares at Rika, who stares back with confusion, then says "m... miss Rika, I am very sorry to have to ask, but please leave. I need to have a word with everyone here!"

Everyone looks curiously at Satori, though nobody speaks, but Rika, being who she is, finishes healing Koishi pats her head, stands up, Suzaku flies to her shoulder, both bow lightly, then Rika finally says "please, allow me to thank you for your great hospitality. My lady Reimu will be please to hear everything is in order", then makes her way outside.

Satori now feels terrible, looking at Rika smile back at her, showing such kindness, even though she's just been kicked out like that.

Now she wants to apologize, but knows that if she does, she'll just offend the maid a lot more, so instead, she looks at her pets and her sister with a desperate look in her eyes, then Orin asks "Satori-sama, what's the matter? Why are you so agitated?"

Satori blinks twice before rapidly asking "wait, what you call me?"

Orin blinks once, tilts her head slightly to the left, then says "Satori-sama, like always."

Satori starts to shiver, then says "but... I heard you call miss Rika 'Rika-sama'. And don't you dare tell me I'm imagining it because I was WIDE awake!"

Orin smiles, then says "well, Rika-sama does make great food, but she's not Satori-sama, and I love my Satori-sama."

Okuu nods, then adds "food is good, but I like Satori-sama better."

Petal jumps on Satori's arms while on human form, forcing the satori youkai to hold her as she shouts "Shatori-shama love~!"

Satori starts to tremble, shame filling her being, replacing the bit of jealousy she felt for Rika, then looks at Koishi and asks "but... what about you? Why did you tell Rika what you wouldn't tell me? Aren't I you my sister?"

Koishi looks away with her cheeks turning red while pouting, then says "I didn't want to worry you, that's why I didn't tell you anything."

Satori starts to shiver and whimper, worrying her sister and her pets.

Petal places her right hand on Satori's left cheek, then asks "why is crying Shatori-shama?"

Parsee places her finger on top of Satori's head, and with a smug face, then says "yup, you totally goofed, didn't you?"

Satori tosses Petal at Orin, and while Orin and Koishi reach for Petal, Satori runs away, shouting "wait~! Miss Rika, wait!"

Okuu stares at the girls on the couch with a very confused face, then asks "is it dinner time already?"

* * *

Satori runs through the large halls of the palace, panting while looking around, hoping to find Rika before she leaves, all while thinking "what have I done? Rika! Even after all I did, she still smiled at me! Satori you fool, you're supposed to think things through! Gah, why didn't I read HER mind instead?"

She continues running, trips, then starts flying just over the floor, saying to herself "Satori, you idiot, you can fly", then looks ahead, takes a deep breath, then shouts "Rika~! Rika, are you there?"

Suddenly, Suzaku's voice sounds clearly inside Satori's head, saying "a little more to your left and ahead."

Satori smiles, then thinks "finally! Now to apologize!"

She quickly finds Rika waving at her, and Suzaku preening herself quite contently on Rika's right shoulder, and promptly lands in front of them.

Rika smiles and blushes with embarrassment as she says "thank goodness. I'm afraid I'm lost. Could you point me to the exit?"

Satori bows with a shamed face and exclaims "and you still address to me so properly, even after I treated you so unfavorably! Miss Rika, I'm so sorry!"

Rika stares at Satori with great confusion, even causing a white large question mark to appear above her head, surprising Suzaku to a soft squawk.

Rika stares straight at the bowing satori, blinks twice, then says "oh my, if this is about me cooking those meals for miss Okuu and miss Petal, and preparing lunch for all of us, please, I was very please to help, so please don't feel bad."

Satori raises her head, looking confused while staring at Rika in the eyes, then asks "wait, you don't know then?"

Rika smiles sheepishly, a drop of sweat rolls down the left side of her head, then she shakes her head left and right in a rapid manner while keeping her wide and sheepish smile.

Satori sighs with relief, and before she realizes it, she's hugging Rika and saying "thank goodness! Oh my, thank goodness!"

Rika hugs Satori back, but she's not sure what's going on.

Finally, reading her thoughts, Satori says "you don't understand? Don't worry, just know I am very sorry I forgot what a good person you really are."

Suddenly, the jewel on Rika's sword glows intense blue; so intense, that the entire hall glows for a brief moment, surprising even Rika herself.

A few moments later, Rika, Suzaku and Parsee stand just outside Chireiden, while the palace's residents stay inside.

Satori, Orin and Koishi step outside, then Satori says "thank you so much for paying us a visit, and remember that you are welcome back to the mansion at any time."

Rika and Suzaku bow their heads, Rika softly saying "thank you very much for your hospitality."

Parsee suddenly jumps in front of Rika and contently shouts "hey thanks, I might take you up on that offer!"

Satori smiles naturally at Parsee, then says "I wasn't taking to you."

Satori look at Rika, both smile at each other, then Rika waves at her subterranean friends, and she and Parsee turn around to head back toward the surface.

After the girls are gone from their sight, Satori gets closer to Orin, then drops on her knees, trembling as though terrorized, frightening her pets and getting her sister's attention.

Okuu and Petal run straight to their master, calling for her in despair, while Orin is already kneeling beside her, anxiously asking "Satori-sama, Satori-sama! What's the matter? What happened to you?"

Satori takes a few breaths of air, passes her own right hand on her head, not noticing a small bracelet with two stones on it, pushes back her hair, then asks "how can someone so sweet and kind have so much darkness inside?"

Orin looks at the vanishing figures of Parsee, Rika and Suzaku, then looks back at Satori and asks "who? The bird? I mean... Parsee is annoying, but she's not bad. And miss Rika most certainly..."

Satori looks sternly at her pets, Okuu and Petal having reached them by now, then says "it's something that's causing her a lot of pain... or maybe... maybe the complete opposite. I can't be sure."

Suddenly, Satori hears Koishi speaking without moving her lips and while looking away, saying "phew, she's alright. I knew it, but jeez, she scared me."

Satori stares at Koishi and asks "how can you be speaking without moving your lips?"

Koishi's face turns bright red, stares at her sister with frightened eyes, then shouts "I-I wasn't speaking! You're imagining things! Get out of my mind!", then runs away into the palace, leaving a trail of dust in her path.

Suddenly, and image of Okuu and Petal appear in her mind, then she sees them as though they are speaking physically, yet she is reading their minds simultaneously.

Okuu says "whoa, Koishi-sama runs fast", while Petal says "uuu~ bad cloud. No sunny for flowers! Oh wait, no sunny here is ever."

Satori stares at her pets with shock, then at Orin, and that's when she notices the bracelet on her right wrist.

It's thin and golden, and has one brownish gold stone with black markings that make it look like a tiger's body, and another stone at the other side of the bracelet, this one brown and round, like and eagle's eye.

Satori stares at the bracelet and whispers "tiger's eye and eagle's eye stones. With these... my powers are more focused. But how? Who...?"

Orin stares at Satori's lost and confused eyes, then says "Satori-sama, don't tell me you forgot miss Rika-sama's gift to you."

Satori stares at Orin with a terrorized and confused face, then says "don't you start messing with my mind, Orin! I never saw her do that!"

Orin, Satori, Okuu and Petal make their way back inside while Orin says "but it's true. She gave it to you before she went out the door. You even thanked her for it!"

Satori sighs angrily, then says "argh! I see... what the hell was I thinking back then that I don't remember that? Oh, that girl may be sweet, but she really knows how to mess me up!"

* * *

It's noon at the Moriya Shrine, and Budou looks a little annoyed as she gives a large piece of meat to Momiji, who takes it with a happy, drooling face, salutes Budou, then says "pleasure doing business with you! Don't hesitate to ask for assistance again!"

Momiji takes a bite off her meat and makes her way back home with a very happy look, all while Budou salutes back with an annoyed face, saying "yeah... thanks.", but recovers her natural smile when Phredia flies to her right shoulder and kisses her cheek.

Meanwhile, the hatless Suwako and Kanako sit next to the kotatsu in the living room, wearing thick black chained shackles around their necks, both looking depressed and just about ready to start crying.

Budou glares at them, then says "I wouldn't have to do that if you didn't go and bother them so much!"

There are a couple of loud thuds at the shrine's entrance, making all the heads in the room turn to the source of the noise, then Budou and the goddesses all gasp loudly, smile widely, then shout at the same time "**you're back~!**"

Budou rushes straight to Ail and Sanae, both quickly placing an arm on her back for a double hug, while Phredia flies above their heads, hugging Ail's head first, then Sanae's, then flies to Sanae's right shoulder and sits there with her legs crossed.

From the living room, the goddesses exclaim to the point of tears "finally, you came back~!", then Suwako quickly says "please, take these off us!"

Ail stares at the goddesses with curiosity, but before he can ask, Budou smiles wickedly and says "they tried going into mama's room for something called mag-zines, so I had to chain them up."

Sanae immediately wraps her arms around the little bat youkai from behind, and while she smiles angelically, she says "that's my girl. You kept those mean old hags away from my room, like I asked."

Kanako watches with resentful eyes at Sanae, but sighs and keeps quite, while Ail approaches them, bends his knees to come face-to-face with them, then says "I hope you learned your lesson."

Both goddesses nod at the same time, then Ail creates a key made of light and opens the large shackles around their necks, saying "well, do remember you owe us some private time for me and Sanae, after ruining our private time at the resort."

The goddesses nod quietly again, taking their chains off, then Ail smiles, opens a gap above their heads, Suwako's hat falls straight on to the goddess' head, then Sanae's large trunks and luggage fall from the gap on to the goddesses back just before closing up, the heavy baggage making a loud crunching sound after settling.

Kanako and Suwako manage to take their head and limbs out from underneath the trunks, making themselves look like turtles, then Ail opens another gap and says "right, I need to go to the Hakurei Shrine now. I need to ask miss Rika for a favor."

Budou quickly runs to Ail and jumps on his back, Phredia quickly following after Budou, then the little bat says "I wanna go too!"

Ail turns his neck around to look at Budou with a wide smile, manages to rub her head, then says "of course!", the notices Sanae's worried face, and sighs.

He stands up straight while Budou hangs on to his back, heads to Sanae, holds her chin, gives her a light kiss on the lips, then says "once we're ready, I'll come get you."

Sanae nods, jump hugs Ail's neck, grabbing Budou as well, kisses his lips, then kisses the little bat's cheek, then says "I'll wait for your call. You two be good now."

Budou, Ail, and Phredia, who just lands on Ail's left shoulder, all salute Sanae, then Ail walks backward toward his gap, winks, then says "as promised, I'll leave everything else here in your capable hands."

Ail enters the gap to the Hakurei Shrine with Budou and Phredia on him, and the second the gap closes up, Sanae holds her gohei on her right hand, looks at the goddesses with an ominous shadow over her eyes and a dangerous smiles, then asks "so, you were looking for my magazines?"

Both goddesses look back at Sanae with a look of sheer terror in their faces, then both sink back underneath the wind priestess' luggage.

There are loud explosions and wing gusts flying all over the shrine's inside, all while outside, Momiji looks toward the shrine with a nervous smile, then sighs and says "ah, such a loving family."

* * *

Meanwhile, down at the Ancient City, on the streets of former hell, Rika walks beside Parsee, while Suzaku flies just above their heads keeping up to their pace.

The oni and spirits there all stare at the girls, and all are unable to resist smiling when Rika looks at them, but quickly and quietly glare when Parsee looks back at them.

Rika notices one of the spirits glaring at Parsee, then asks "hey, miss Parsee? Why are they glaring at us?"

Parsee walks to Rika's immediate right, placing her hands behind her head while looking toward the dark ceiling, seemingly bored.

When Rika speaks to her, she slowly returns from her thoughts and notices the glares she's receiving.

She smiles maliciously, then wraps an arm around Rika and smiles more naturally while saying "yes that's right! Rika and I are buddies! Ha ha ha~!"

Rika looks curiously at Parsee, then asks "umm, miss Parsee, what are you doing? What's going on?"

Parsee thinks "this girl is making everyone so jealous of me! I... I think I like her!"

Parsee tightens her grip on Rika, pressing the maid hard against herself, then happily and loudly says "just showing everyone you are my very, very best friend ever!"

With those words, the jewel on Rika's sword glows bright blue, making Rika smile more naturally when she realizes Parsee means her words, then both girls yelp when they feel something lifting them to the air.

Both look between themselves and realize they are riding on Yuugi's shoulders now, and with a thunderous voice, Yuugi says "come on girls, I'll come with you to the surface!"

Rika giggles and tilts her head forward in acceptance, while Parsee waves her arms in anger and shouting "hey, Rika is my friend! MY friend! I'll see her to the surface, not you! HEY! Are you even listening?"

Completely ignoring Parsee, Yuugi continues to smile while carrying the two girls back to the surface.

A few minutes later, Rika finds herself standing at the cave's entrance, admiring the noon sky along with Suzaku, who perches on her shoulder.

Next to the cave's entrance are Yuugi, Parsee, Yamame and Kisume, all smiling and waving at Rika, though Parsee looks a little angry for having to share that moment with the others.

Yuugi notices Parsee's face, wraps a powerful left arm around her neck, then says "come on bridge princess, wave with me!"

Rika and Suzaku bow to their friends, then Rika says with a smile "thank you very much. You're all so kind. I'll let miss Reimu know everything is fine down here."

Yamame looks at Rika with longing eyes, then loudly shouts "please come back soon! We miss you!"

Rika smiles and bows again, then waits for her friends to get back inside before turning around herself.

She looks at Suzaku and smirks, then says "maybe I should try Quicksilver."

Suzaku takes flight, then asks "is it ok if I go ahead to the shrine Rika-sama?"

Rika sweats and looks at Suzaku in disbelief, then says "fine. We'll see who gets there first."

Suzaku tweets, then flies straight toward the Hakurei Shrine, while Rika takes flight as well, stays hovering just above tree-height for a moment, closes her eyes to concentrate, then vanishes from sight.

Instantly, there is a loud cracking sound and Rika's yelp, and now Rika is hanging on her abdomen on a tree branch, looking surprised and spitting out leaves.

She looks up at Suzaku as she vanishes in the distances, takes flight again, then sighs and says "still need more practice. I guess I'll do it the old fashioned way."

* * *

Later that afternoon, when the skies start turning golden, Rika and Suzaku, who waited for her master, land at the shrine's front courtyard.

They can hear the voices of Reimu, Marisa, Ail and Mima, then hear Budou's giggles, then Rika says "oh dear, my lady has guests and I wasn't here to tend to them!"

She rushes inside, loudly saying "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'm here now my lady!", then finds Reimu, Marisa and Ail playing cards on the kotatsu, while Mima holds Budou on her lap.

All of them stare at Rika with surprise, even Phredia, who peeks her head out from under the kotatsu, then Reimu smiles brightly and says "Rika, welcome back!"

The maiden drops her cards on the table, jumps on her feet, then quickly wraps her arms around Rika's neck upon reaching her, happily saying "welcome back Rika! I made you some dinner and dessert."

Rika stares at Reimu as though about ready to cry, then says "my lady had to do all the chores! I'm such a bad maid!"

Reimu grabs Rika's chin, stares sternly into Rika's eyes, then says "hey, you better eat now, or I'll get mad."

Rika panics and loudly says "wah- of course! Eating the food my lady has prepared herself will be a privilege!"

Soon, both Reimu and Rika realize Ail and Suzaku, who stands on the table, are staring at each other, then Rika smiles and says "mister Ail, meet Suzaku. She's my familiar."

Ail smiles and lifts his hand, offers it to Suzaku, then says "hello miss Suzaku. Meet Phredia and Budou."

After Suzaku shakes Ail's hand, Ail pulls Phredia from under the kotatsu, then points at Budou on Mima's lap.

Suzaku stares at Mima, then flaps her wings, jumps on the ground, then immediately heads toward the evil spirit and bat youkai, stares at Budou, then lowers her head.

Budou giggles and rubs the feathers around her cheeks, then says "ah, what a cute birdie! So soft too. Oh my, what bright energy! Just like gramma's and big sis'!"

Mima smiles and aims to pet Suzaku's head with her left hand while saying "really? Ooh, let me pet her too", but before her hand reaches, Suzaku pecks her hand, then continues to bow her head so that Budou may continue to pet her.

Mima shakes her hand around, stares angrily at Suzaku, then embraces Budou while saying "if that's how you want to play, then I won't share either!"

Suzaku stares at Mima, flies on her head, and before Mima can ask what is she doing, she pecks Mima's head three times, forcing her to release Budou and drop her back on her lap, then jumps back on the floor while Mima holds her own head, then resumes her bowing so that Budou may continue to pet her yet again.

Holding her head with her hands, and with tears in her eyes, Mima glares at the bird of vermilion, then says "you win this round, chicken!"

Suzaku tweets, ignoring Mima and enjoying Budou's petting, admirations and giggles.

Meanwhile, Rika pouts while sitting on the table and waits for her mistress to serve her dinner, making Marisa, Phredia and Ail blush and whisper amongst themselves about how cute she looks like that, though Phredia mostly listens and nods.

Ail finally returns to normal, looks at Rika, then says "alright, enough waiting around. Miss Rika, I've asked for Reimu's permission, and she has accepted. Now it's a matter of you accepting as well."

Forgetting her own mistress is serving her, she looks at Ail with her natural face, then asks "what is it, mister Ail?"

Ail stares back at Rika with urgency, then says "I need your help with Yuka and Elly. That stubborn flower youkai won't accept it, but Elly, her subordinate, she's about ready to explode. I fear this might end very badly, particularly for Elly, and I need your help to calm her down, maybe even patch things up between them. So, will you help?"

Without hesitation, Rika nods and says "if miss Reimu has allowed it, then I will help. Please, tell me everything."

Before Ail speaks again, he and Rika look to the floor to where Reimu was sitting before, then see Tenshi with a content smile on her face and her cheeks pink in color, all while sticking half of her body inside of the kotatsu.

Reimu looks furious when Tenshi takes a deep breath while placing her nose on the floor, then says "ahh~ so nice. I like it."

Both Ail and Rika stare at the situation with a blue shadow cast over their terrorized eyes, then both jump away from the table, Rika holding her rice and soup bowls.

Marisa, unaware of what's going on, looks at Ail, then at Rika, then asks "oi, what's going on, ze?"

Reimu has her gohei gripped tight with both hands, lift it up in the air, and as she swings down with all her might, she shouts "die you perverted celestial~!"

Tenshi can be heard screaming from outside the shrine, all the way to the shrine's stairs, where Kyo and Luna are, having just arrived to the shrine.

The couple look at each other, then ask at the same time "a shrine murder case?"

* * *

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Budou, Phredia, Kyo and Luna Rivers were created by Willie G.R.

Rika Onkamikami and Suzaku were created by Snapshot 2010

OCT 11 201

Written by

Willie G.R.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N:**

**Ugh, darn it... decided to best just apologize for the message that was here before, but really, sometimes a small comment does wonders for a writer. Anyway, let it be known I am also lazy, and loving it... so there!  


* * *

**

Running through an open field early in the morning, Guzman smiles when he spots the Misty Lake to the distance over the many leafless trees and bushes.

He slows down and remembers the past night, when he entered Julia's main computer room.

_Inside a dark room, where blinking lights of every color imaginable and the incessant bleeps that fill the atmosphere, Guzman, wearing his special hat, a lazy-looking white shirt and a pair of broken blue jeans, sits in front of a large monitor, smiling with malice._

_ His smile widens as he calmly says "out with it already. You already told me about those at Bamboo Forest, The Forest of Magic, that Mansion, AND the flower fields. Now tell me about Reimu and that demonic slave of hers!"_

_ Julia's voice comes from all around the room, and sounding indignant, she says "I know what you are, and soon, I'll have the means necessary to prove it to lady Nitori, so why should I help you with anything?"_

_ Guzman angrily sighs and rubs his eyes with his right hand, then suddenly punches the table in front of himself with his right hand he quickly balled into a fist, then says "password input: He is my friend 0069." _

_There are many rapid beeps coming from the entire room, then Guzman smiles and asks "again, tell me more about Reimu, and her demonic little __**maid!**__"_

_ Unable to override the password input, an image of Reimu appears in the monitor in front of Guzman, then Julia asks "what would you like to know about Reimu Hakurei?" _

_Guzman thinks for a moment, then asks "is there any weakness to her... any at all?"_

Back to the present, Guzman is now using the flotation device on his boots to skate across the lake as he smiles and says "now all I need to do is make her drain her power, then catch her when she's weak. After that, I can take down that demon woman, Rika, with ease."

After crossing the lake, hiding behind a tree, and activating his mirror cloak, Guzman remembers what happened next at that room.

_Guzman smiles and laughs after Julia finishes relaying the information on Reimu, then loudly says "this is great! Now how about her maid?"_

_ An image of Rika, wearing her old outfit from the time she first entered Gensokyo appears on the monitor. _

_She wears her long sleeved kimono-like shirt and long red kimono-like skirt with the white bands around the edges, the big red ribbon with the fiery design and letters in kanji for "the Will of Fire", and her sapphire yin-yang on a necklace, both around her neck, and she's also missing her wings._

_ Guzman frowns at the sight, then says "if it wasn't for that fiery ribbon, that sapphire, and those... hateful eyes of hers, I wouldn't have recognized her at all. What gives?" _

_Julia replies "I'm afraid lady Nitori hasn't updated my database for some time. All I can tell you about Rika is that she's very devoted to her mistress, the Hakurei Maiden, Reimu, and she's uncommonly kind. I have no more information about her."_

_ Guzman growls softly, then says "that's fine. I guess I'll have to find out more on my own."_

_ Guzman calmly gets off the chair and heads back outside. _

_Julia's room starts bleeping rapidly, then Julia says "don't think I'll be letting you out of here that easily."_

_ Guzman lifts a small detonator on his left hand, then smiles and says "yes, I believe you will."_

_ Julia angrily says "I am not afraid of death." _

_Guzman nods, then says "true, but you're afraid that Nitori might get upset over losing you." _

_There is a moment of silence, then a door to the outside suddenly opens up, revealing a large brown turtle shell lying on the corridor, then Guzman chuckles and says "that's more like it", as he gets out of the room._

Back at present, Guzman stands behind a large and old-looking tree just a few yards away from the mansion's gates, puts on his glasses, smirking and saying "I really missed wearing these guys", then looks toward the mansion while still behind the tree.

While he waits in silence, he thinks "it's only a matter of time. I need to find somewhere new to hide... I need to explore this place... might be good for a cache and hideout."

He smiles widely when he hears a door open over at the mansion, then says to himself "the guard is out. It's show time."

* * *

Meiling walks out of the mansion wearing a bright orange scarf around her neck, and after closing the door behind her, she wraps her arms around herself, shivers for a moment, then says "brrr, it's starting to get cold. Maybe I should start wearing long sleeves."

She pauses for a moment, then stares at the ground between the gate and the mansion's front door, then remembers the last training session with Sakuya.

_Sakuya and Meiling stare fiercely at each other, both have their training clothes torn almost everywhere, yet they both look fresh and ready for anything. _

_Both scream as they rush to each other, lock arms and push against each other, and while staring straight into each other's eyes, Meiling says "good, you're keeping up with me! Can you do more?"_

_ Sakuya smirks, her eyes intensify, then, though a bit out of breath, she says "if it's more you want..."_

_ She places her left leg behind Meiling's right leg, lifts her left leg, forces Meiling to tumble to the right, then grabs her by the right of her waist and left of her neck, pushes with all her strength, then sends Meiling spinning in the air, then drops to the ground, pushes herself upward with her hands, then kicks Meiling hard, sending her flying all the way toward the garden. _

_Meiling screams as she falls backward to the ground, screaming "not the flowers~!", then lets out a very loud "omph" when she lands with her arms spread, landing between two flower beds, missing them by mere inches. _

_Sakuya is standing close to Meiling and dusting her hands while finishing her sentence from before, saying "...then it's more you get, little lady." _

_For a while, Meiling and Sakuya glare at each other, then Meiling suddenly starts chuckling, then progresses to laughing, to which Sakuya is unable to hold back and joins in, and for a good seven seconds, they just laugh._

_ Finally, Sakuya bends down and offers a helping hand, which Meiling happily accepts, and when she's finally standing, the helping hand turns to a tight handshake, and while looking at each other, Meiling says "you are more than ready miss Sakuya. If that human ever comes over here again, he's going to be no match for you."_

Meiling returns from her thoughts, smiling so hard she can feels her cheeks trying to push her lips back into place.

She continues to stare at the same spot for a little while longer, then slowly lifts her sights.

Her smile quickly vanishes and her eyes ignite with intensity as she slowly focuses on the terrible sight.

A pair of black army boots, a pair of dark blue jeans, a belt with a large buckle and with a gun to its right, a dark brown shirt, an open brown jacket, and finally, that horrible malicious, though this time, clean face with a disgusting evil grin, and a brown cowboy hat on top of it all.

Her aura ignites, almost causing a large burn mark on the ground beneath her feet, then Meiling, with her intense eyes fixed on Guzman, says "the cheating pig returns."

Guzman's smirk widens, but he doesn't speak.

He simply stares at Meiling from top to bottom and back, then takes an offensive stance.

Meiling clenches both hands into fists and slowly takes a defensive stance while saying "as long as I stand, you will not enter this mansion."

Guzman scoffs, his smile turns to a frown, then he threateningly says "I was hoping you'd say that."

* * *

Moments earlier, at the Hakurei Shrine, in the greenhouse to the left of the storage house, Rika walks amongst her vegetables and flowers, paying close attention to a peculiar set of potted red and orange flowers with thick and glossy leaves that are larger in size than the actual flowers.

Rika smiles and giggles after touching the red flowers, then says "perfect. As delicate as your cousins and sisters, yet as strong as your mother. You should be able to withstand the harsh elements."

She takes one pot of those red flowers, and two large pots of the same flowers, only these ones are orange, then takes out her Saboten Stock from her pocket, activates it, then, as gently as she can, she places the flowers inside in an upright position, all shrinking as they enter the tiny box.

After deactivating and closing it, she smiles and says "this is just a start, but I'm sure I'll be able to earn her forgiveness."

After exiting the greenhouse and closing the door, Rika quickly notices Suzaku perched on the roof's front edge, spreading her wings before jumping down to meet with Rika, hovering at Rika's face height by flapping her wings while saying "good morning miss Rika. When are we going to the Garden of the Sun?"

Rika smiles as she lightly shakes her head, then says "please, I need you to stay here with miss Reimu."

Suzaku tweets when she looks at Rika's face, noticing worry behind her smile, then she asks "so you feel that too?"

Rika continues to smile as she nods, then says "if anything happens, I'll call for you."

Suzaku tweets again, and as she flies back to the shrine, she says "same thing I was about to say. I will do my best to protect mom while your away."

Rika smiles some more as she watches the bird of vermillion enter she shrine through the side door, then turns around to address to Ail, Budou and Sanae, who stand inside Ail's gap just behind her.

She smiles, bows her head, and says "good morning to all. As you can see, I am ready."

Ail, Sanae and Budou all smile back, though Ail shares the same worried smile as Rika.

The maid quickly notices, but before she asks, Ail quickly says "I know. We felt it too. It's only a guess... but I think he's on the move again."

Rika's usual calm face changes at the mere thought of Guzman, then Ail, feeling the same as her, says "let's try to do this fast so that we... I mean... you may assist the others if needed."

Rika nods, while Budou, Sanae, and now Phredia, who springs right out of Budou's heart, all show their worry for Ail, who can't seem to calm down enough to stop thinking of going after Guzman.

Rika realizes this, so she immediately enters the gap and smiles more naturally, then says "come on mister Ail, our friends from the flower fields need us now."

Budou quickly adds "don't worry papa. I'm sure everyone knows."

Sanae places a comforting hand on Ail's left shoulder, then says "one step at a time, honey."

Ail finally manages to calm down, smiles as he turns his head to look at his friends, then the gap closes up.

Hiding behind the entrance to the shrine, wearing her white pajamas, Reimu calmly listens to their conversation, and after patting Suzaku's head, she says "she'll be fine. You can sense what she feels, and she can sense what you feel. We should be alright. All of us."

Suzaku nods, and after Reimu sighs, she stands up and heads to her room to prepare for her day.

* * *

At the front entrance of the SDM, Meiling, who is surrounded by a rainbow aura, and Guzman, who smirks back at her, walk around in a circle, keeping each other in sight, and each waiting for the other to make the first move.

Meiling takes the first move, launching a straight chop to Guzman's neck so fast, her hand turns red from the friction, but her attack fails.

Guzman snickers as Meiling realizes he blocked her attack with his right forearm, then he mercilessly punches her stomach as hard as he can with his left fist, taking all the air out of her system, and while she holds her stomach, he lands a powerful uppercut that sends her flying three feet in the air before finally falling back on the ground.

She knows there has to be something to his strength.

A human, no matter how powerful, could never do that to her, save for the Hakurei maiden.

Before she can ask, Guzman throws himself on Meiling, sinking both knees on her abdomen as he lands, then grabs her neck, squeezes it tightly, then slaps her face several times for a laugh.

Meiling loses her temper after seeing him laugh so much after disrespecting her like that, so she grabs his arm, squeezes it hard, forces him to let her go, then throws him over her head, then flips back on to her feet.

She turns around to find him already getting up, and angrily says "you dishonor me! Humiliating and opponent like that while she's on the ground! Unforgivable!"

Guzman scoffs, then says "right. The next time you're on the ground, I'll immediately have you."

Meiling snarls and rushes to attack, catching Guzman off guard and landing a punch on his face.

She quickly follows with a punch to his abdomen, another to his right ribs, a quick uppercut, a kick on the back of his right knee, and finally, she spins and throws a straight and solid kick to his face, making the atmosphere around them tremble with the energy exerted.

Guzman flies through the air all the way toward the right-side gate wall, then crashes head-first against said wall, hitting so hard, some brick loosen up, and others fall right off on the other side of said wall.

Meiling smirks and cracks her knuckles, then says "swine like you know nothing of honor! I'll take great pleasure in killing you with my bare ha-"

Before she can finish her sentence, Guzman is already on her, attacking her entire body without hesitation with punches, kicks, even bites, then finally unsheathes his gun and strikes her on the right side of her head with its back, sending her falling to the ground, but not before she spins in the air and lands on the left side of her head.

Guzman spits the blood in his mouth right next to Meiling's body, then snarls and says "I'll be damned before a weakling like you ever lays me down!"

Before Meiling can get up, Guzman lifts his gun, pointing the barrel to the air, and activates its dark spell.

Almost immediately, Meiling feels as though a bullets is entering her head once more, and her rainbow aura vanishes.

The painful feeling of hot lead breaking through her skull and going inside her head, burning and breaking all in its path repeats itself over and over.

It's not long before she starts to whimper and holds her head, then she starts jerking around, trying to fight the pain.

Blood starts rushing down her face as the bullet wound opens up, even though there is no actual bullet this time.

Guzman gets the gun closer to her face, stomps down on her right elbow, then, through gritted teeth, he says "you'll pay for touching me, you filthy cow."

Meiling jerks so violently she pushes Guzman away, grunts over and over again, then finally gives in to the pain, and using all her strength, she desperately shouts at the top of her lungs "**SAKUYA~!**", her scream echoing as far as the other side of the lake itself.

Guzman immediately activates the magnet in his pocket, but doesn't notice the chief maid is already standing behind him, spinning while on her left foot, and after gaining enough momentum, she kicks his back so hard she sends him flying straight to the nearest window, which he breaks through with his own face, leaving trickles of blood on the remaining broken glass.

When Sakuya sees Meiling on the ground, jerking around while holding her face with both hands, blood spilling all over the dried grass, she panics and throws herself on her knees beside the gate guard.

She stutters when trying to speak, but finally manages to say "assemble!"

Seven fairy maids appear all around the maid and gate guard, two very friendly-looking fairies, one of golden hair and the other of blue hair, then Sakuya says "hmm, only you. You two", then points at the blonde and blue haired fairies, then continues "go back into the mansion and follow plan playtime."

The two fairies salute Sakuya, then fly inside the mansion through the front door, giggling and flying around each other, as though playing amongst themselves.

Sakuya looks to Meiling again, who is finally lying peacefully on the ground, bleeding through that wound, then says "you five, help me here."

Sakuya gasps when Meiling grabs her right forearm and whispers "after him! I'm youkai. I'll be fine."

Sakuya stares with worry at Meiling, who smiles and chuckles, then quickly tosses the maid through the same window she sent Guzman.

Sakuya rolls safely on the carpet inside, then quickly realizes Guzman is on the move.

With a desperate tone, she gasps and whispers "I have to find him!", then runs toward the Grand Hallway.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Garden of the Sun, to the left of the door to Yuka's house stands Elly, resting her scythe against her left shoulder while she leans against the wall, looking with hatred at anything and everything she can lay her eyes on.

She suddenly gasps, grabs her scythe, then throws it forward.

Ail's gap opens up just then, right in front of the scythe's path, making Elly smile maliciously, but instead of the sound of flesh being cut open, there is a loud clang, and her scythe is sent flying back at Elly, landing just inches away from her unmoving self.

The youkai looks through an ominous shadow that looms over her eyes at the sight of Rika sheathing her sword while saying "really, you should look before attacking like that. What if you had hit little miss Budou?"

Elly snarls at the sight of Ail, Sanae and Budou as they exit the gap, then turns her sights to Rika and says "you are trespassing. Get the hell away from here."

Before anybody replies, Elly feels a powerful strike on the back of her head that sends her to her knees, and when she looks up, she sees Yuka smiling while looking toward the group, saying "we don't attack invited guests Elly~!"

Elly manages to stand up, softly growls, then says "bite me, flower witch!"

Yuka giggles and smiles, though a dangerously ominous look takes her face as she says "you're starting to get on my nerves. You better stop that, if you value your life."

Elly growls inward in order to swallow her desire to attack Yuka, but can't help snarling at her mistress.

As Yuka approaches her visitors, Ail gets closer to Rika and whispers "see what I mean? We need her to calm down", then points at Yuka "and _HER_ to acknowledge her hard work."

Rika silently nods while Yuka stops a few feet away and says "welcome to my field of flowers. Please don't harm the flowers, or I'll break away your arms and legs."

Budou and Sanae are just about to touch a wilting sunflower, but after Yuka's welcoming threats, they decide it's best to keep their hands to themselves.

Ail sweats and nods while Rika naturally smiles and approaches the flower youkai.

Before Yuka can ask, Rika bows all the way to the ground, then says "miss Kazami, please accept my most sincerest apologies for what I did."

Yuka looks down at Rika with her curious and narrow eyes, then asks "you harmed my flowers?"

Rika honestly replies "never. Flowers are too precious and so full of life."

Yuka opens her eyes wide, grabs Rika with her left hand and lifts her off the ground, then wraps her arm around Rika, then her right arm around Ail, then contently says "that's the same thing my dear and neglectful friend, Ail here, said when we first met! Come, let's go inside the house. Oh, and those two can come as well, I guess."

Sanae and Budou both stomp on the ground at the same time, and at the same time they says "hey, I heard that!"

Ignoring the two girls, Yuka continues to drag Ail and Rika toward the house, and all pass by Elly, who continues to kneel on the ground until the door closes, and that's when she mouths some heavy and obscene curses at Yuka, then gets up and picks up her scythe.

Inside the house, Yuka walks to her kitchen and says "please, wait for me by the table. I'll prepare some tea."

Sanae and Budou accept the offer and quickly take their seats beside each other, then they both notice a carved heart with the letters "Y & E" inside of it, though it's been cut in half by something large and sharp, possibly Elly's own scythe.

Kurumi runs from the second floor, exclaiming "I smell mister Ail and miss Sanae! Welcome to-"

Rika and Ail both smile at Kurumi, then Rika says "hello miss Kurumi, my name is Rika."

Kurumi stiffens her wings and stares at Rika with terror in her eyes, then Rika gasps and says "oh please, forgive me. It's just Ail's spoken so much about you."

Kurumi screams, points at Rika, hisses, then shouts "I'm not getting purified~! Get away white blood~!", then runs back to the next floor, where a door can be heard being slammed hard.

From the kitchen, Yuka sighs and says "that girl is such a pain in the butt."

Meanwhile, Rika is whimpering beside Ail, saying "but I'm not going to hurt you."

Ail pats Rika's shoulders, then says "come on, let's just sit down for now."

* * *

Back at the SDM, while Sakuya searches the Grand Hallway and Clock Tower, Guzman enters Patchouli's library undetected by the many armed fairy maids, thanks mostly to his mirror cloak.

As he walks around unnoticed, he thinks "who the hell can read in such a dimly lit place? Geez, look at all these books. Heh, I bet there are a few worth a pretty penny or two around here."

He suddenly grunts, falls to the ground on his knees, spits out some blood, then thinks "that bitch! Even with this ring, it's taking some time to recover. My entire body aches like hell."

He manages to stand up and smile, then says to himself "no matter. Once I make this place mine... I'll have some fun with her... and that maid."

From deeper inside the room, Koakuma's voice echoes as she asks "hey, who's in here?"

Guzman grunts and moves away from the small pool of blood he left behind, while Koakuma suddenly lands right where Guzman was just standing, then stares at the pool of blood.

She looks around and loudly says "hello~! Whoever's in here, know you're trespassing, so come on and show yourself so I can kill you quickly! Stop hiding already, because I know you're here. I mean... pools of blood don't appear on their own~!"

Getting farther away from the little demon, yet unknowingly closer to Patchouli, Guzman thinks "damn, what a babe! Now I REALLY want this mansion! What the-?"

The mirror cloak lifts on its own, revealing Guzman's presence to Patchouli, who stands in front of him with an open book on her right hand while pointing her left hand at the human.

With a soft, yet threatening voice, Patchouli says "so you're that Guzman. Congratulation on reaching this far without getting killed, but whatever luck granted you safety is now gone."

Guzman chuckles and shrugs, then says "another hot babe I can ravage once I'm done here. Yup, this place will be hea-"

Before he can finish, Patchouli sends a large fireball straight at him, however Guzman manage to grab his cloak and use it in time to bounce the fireball back at Patchouli, who quickly uses a quick water spell to douse her own fireball.

The magician summons a spell card form her book, but long before she can declare her spell, Guzman shoots her with his magic bullets, which are just like Reisen's danmaku, only move a lot faster, almost like real bullets, and immediately, Patchouli feels the burning sting of the bullets when they impact her head and left cheek.

She yelps in surprise, and before she can recover, Guzman is already in front of her, striking her face with his gun and sending Patchouli flying several feet away from him and smashing her back against the edge of one of the many bookshelves.

Patchouli cries out in pain as she falls to the ground, then groans loudly as she tries to find a spot on the ground where her back stops hurting as though it's been severed in two.

Guzman walks closer, eager to deal the finishing blow, sinisterly saying "seeing as I want to have some fun with you, I won't kill you, but you tried to burn me, so I'll have to punish you. Hmm... where should I start?"

Guzman feels as though his face is being ripped apart, yet only flinches and sends a powerful left hook in front of himself, striking Koakuma hard enough to send her flying against another bookshelf to their left and have her buried under many large books that fall from the shelf itself.

Guzman touches his face and realizes he has three thin cuts seeping blood all over him, but instead of getting angry, she smiles and says "feisty, just how I like 'em! You girls will be my trophies, once this place is mine!"

Koakuma springs up from under the book with a black left eye and holding a spell card on her right hand, then loudly says "Mind Sign, Pleasurable Mind!"

There is a sudden bright flash and the entire library becomes a large old peaceful farm with all kinds of farm animal roaming freely.

Guzman looks around, his face completely changed to that of a lost child.

In front of him is a large white house with a few broken windows on the second floor, and on the ground next to the entrance are two women.

One, looks just like the one he saw when Nue had approached him; with little, but long dark orange hair that reaches just below her shoulder, light-red skin, brown eyes, and wearing a blue short-sleeved shirt and long white skirt.

The other woman has little, but long golden brown hair that reaches just below her shoulders, pale skinned, has hazel eyes, and wears a white t-shirt with a black skirt that covers down to her knees.

Guzman freezes when he sees these women, who in reality are Koakuma and Patchouli.

The little devil approaches her mistress and desperately asks "lady Patchouli, are you alright? Can you move?"

Patchouli whimpers as Koakuma helps her back up, then says "it's alright, I can fly at least."

Koakuma glares at the mesmerized Guzman, then says "hit him hard."

While Patchouli prepares another fireball, Guzman softly asks "Ilia? Mother? Is that... is that really you? W-where's little Carmen?"

His face is completely changed; now he looks like a lost child looking for a meaning to his existence.

Scowling at the man, Koakuma says "just hit him already!", and without hesitation, Patchouli shoots her large fireball straight at Guzman's face, making him scream in agony as the blazing fire burns his skin.

Koakuma takes this moment and lifts to the air while helping Patchouli, then loudly says "let's get out of here! We only got about fifteen seconds left!"

After they leave, Guzman recovers, regaining his hateful face as he looks around and rummages though his right pocket for his sunglasses.

The moment he puts them on, the room around him returns to normal, and rage immediately takes over all his senses.

After letting out a primal scream he starts breathing heavily, then says "that devil... If I ever get my hands on her..."

Without saying another word, he slowly makes his way back out of the library, covering himself up with his mirror cloak and making himself invisible once more.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at Yuka's house, Ail has managed to convince Kurumi to exit her room and properly greet Budou and Sanae, while Rika keeps out of sight, following a plan thought up by Budou.

Ail pushes Kurumi closer to the table, where Budou and Sanae sit in chairs in front of each other, and Yuka sits on one of the center chairs, making it look like she's right between the girls.

Kurumi bows and says "um, sorry about before. My name's Kurumi, but Sanae knows that already."

Budou giggles, waves her little left arm, then says "I'm Budou, and this is Phredia. Say hi to miss Kurumi."

The little blonde vampire looks around with confusion, then the little elf fairy springs right out of Budou's heart, flies next to Kurumi's face, bows, then flies back to Budou and sits on her right shoulder.

Kurumi giggles, then looks up at Ail and says "I'm a vampire of my word. All of you are friend, and I will help protect you all."

Yuka suddenly gasps with a terrified face, points behind Kurumi, then says "she's come to purify you!"

Though Ail tries to hold Kurumi down, the little vampire gets so frightened, the breaks free from Ail's grip and flies back to her room, screaming "she's gonna kill me~!"

Ail looks sternly at the laughing Yuka, while Budou and Sanae just stare with surprise, then shakes his head slowly as he asks "you just love doing these kinds of things, don't you?"

Yuka takes her teacup and places it against her lips, and before sipping her drink, she proudly says "I live for them!"

Kurumi rushes inside her room, slams the door shut, closes about six different locks, nods after finishing, then says "hmph! Let's see that white blood get me now!"

When she turns around, she jumps back against her door with her arms and wings spread, making herself look like part of the wallpaper, then points forward with her right hand and stutters.

Rika is already in the room with her synthesizing hammer on hand and pointing it at all of Kurumi's clothes, which lie on the bed.

When she finishes, she turns her head to look at Kurumi with a pained smile, then says "please, calm down. I'm not here to purify you. I'm just-"

Kurumi gasps and asks "what did you do to my clothes? You spread your blood on them, didn't you? You want me dead, don't you?"

Rika can no longer hold it in and tears start flowing out her eyes and down her cheeks, then sniffles and says "I would never do that. I just wanted to-"

She stops speaking and places both hands on her face, then starts to cry on the floor, saying "why would I ever do that? I'm not a bad person *sob*! I was just trying to help~!"

Kurumi panics and waves her arms in the air while saying "whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down lady! C-come on, stop crying already! I... I believe you, I believe you!"

Rika raises her face, her eyes and cheeks dry, yet still looking a bit sad. Looking curious at all her clothes, Kurumi asks "so what _were_ you doing to my clothes?"

Completely changing her mood, Rika springs on her feet and with a happy smile on her face, she says "I'm so glad you asked! You see, mister Ail told me about your weakness to sun and water, so I synthesized all your clothes and ribbons, well, except the ones you are wearing now, and gave them sun reflecting and water resistant properties. I even managed to place spells on them, so even without a hat, you'll be protected from the elements. Hope you don't mind that I did the same to your cute little swimsuits."

Kurumi continues to stare suspiciously at Rika while slowly getting closer to her and her clothes, then asks "are you telling me I'll be immune to the sun and to water?"

Rika frowns and says "oh, I'm sorry. I wish I could do that, but... all they can do is protect you from them. You'll be less affected and you won't die, but you can still get hurt. Still, at least you'll be able to enjoy getting in pools or lakes... You know, where water doesn't move much."

Kurumi gets closer to Rika and stares up to her face, then asks "why are you helping me? You're a white blood. You're supposed to be all over me, trying to purify me. Are you trying to trick me?"

Rika kneels to look at Kurumi straight into her eyes, then says "miss Kurumi, I just want to be your friend. I mean, think about it. Would Ail, one whose already proven to be nice to you, bring me here to hurt you?"

Kurumi stares into Rika's eyes with doubt in her own, then Rika sighs and says "just like miss Remilia, miss Flandre and miss Koakuma. Fine, I'll get out and never bother you again."

Kurumi holds Rika's arm so that she stays where she is, then says "you're not lying, but it's still hard to believe. Someone as pure as you wanting to befriend someone like... a demon."

Kurumi looks away from Rika, so Rika smiles and happily says "well, you're a living creature, right? No matter what you are, know that you are precious. All living things are."

Kurumi stares at Rika again for a little while longer, then suddenly smiles and opens her wings wide, feeling elation fill her heart and causing the jewel on Rika's sword to glow intense blue.

When Rika and Kurumi look at the sword, Rika exclaims "oh my, I've never seen it glow so intense before. Thank you so much, miss Kurumi."

Kurumi smiles and asks "why?"

Rika rubs Kurumi's head, then says "because you and I are now friends, and I am honored and very happy about it."

Kurumi smiles widely, then excitedly says "help me change now! I wanna try these new clothes!"

Rika smiles and accepts the clothes Kurumi tosses in the air as she says "alright. I'll synthesize these as well."

From the door, sounding muffled, Budou loudly asks "did it work?"

Ail quickly says "Budou, you're not supposed to ask."

Yuka shouts "you pervert! Look, he's looking through the keyhole! He's even drooling!"

Ail shrieks when Sanae's raging voice rages all the way from the lower floors as she shouts "Anilan Inmodo Leuch~!"

Ail suddenly shouts "dammit Yuka, don't do that!"

Yuka laughs hard while Budou shouts "papa, run!", all while Sanae's rapid footsteps get closer to the door.

While Ail screams and Sanae rages, inside the room, Kurumi and Rika look toward the door and Kurumi says "wow, she has a short fuse, doesn't she?"

Rika quietly nods while looking with worry at the door, wincing at the sound of Ail being beaten down hard, all while Yuka laughs and Budou cries for her papa.

* * *

Two hours later, at the SDM, the door to Sakuya's room opens up on its own, then closes up just as a group of armed fairy maids come flying through the corridor.

Inside, Guzman's voice comes clear as he says "so, I'm back in her room. Sweet", then reveals himself, feeling safe while inside.

He immediately goes for the top drawer on Sakuya's dressing table, hoping to find her underwear, but instead finds it's full of knives of all sizes.

He grunt with anger and readies to close the drawer to look into the next one, then notices three silver knives with red hilts, and a combat knife already sheathed in a clip-on leather sheath.

He smiles, then says to himself "pure silver... Perfect against vampires. And one lovely combat knife too. I guess I could use this barbaric thing against that... that devil woman!"

He clips the combat knife next to his gun on the right side his belt, grabs the three silver knives and places two on the left side, then keeps the third silver knife on hand.

Afterward, he searches through two more drawers, finding Sakuya's maid uniforms inside one, and her underwear in the other, all neatly folded and piled, then places his hands inside.

There is a loud thud from outside, so he stops and covers himself with the cloak, then exits the room.

Her quickly walks away and finds himself in another corridor, this one with windows to freedom, although he doesn't really want to leave, so he just makes his way to the east.

He stops with a fright when a little girl says "you, the one wrapped in that cloak that smells like pee! Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Guzman rolls his eyes after realizing his mirror cloak failed him again, then sighs and reveals himself to the girl without turning around.

Flandre raises her right eyebrow, then says "you are the one saying you're taking my home away. I'm so glad that I found you, so I can kill you."

Guzman smiles at Flandre as he turns around, readying the on-hand knife, then laughs and asks "a little whelp like you thinks she's going to stop me? Go play with your dolls, little girl."

Flandre giggles, then says "oh, don't you know? I break all my dolls, so I'm always looking for playing partners that won't break as easily. Still, they break just like my dolls, but they are still more fun. They scream in agony when I break off their limbs."

Guzman scoffs and stands up straight, then says "shut up already. Besides, I'm here for you sister. She's someone of importance after all, while you... well, you can just curl up in a corner and rot away for all I care."

Those words trigger many unwanted memories to surface back in the little vampire's head, fueling her with rage.

Her eyes hide under a thick black shadow as she growls softly, and sounding extremely agitated, she says "you! I'll enjoy spreading your guts all over the carpet!"

She raises her right hand when she spots the eye of Guzman's abdomen, bends her fingers to destroy that eye, then stops after the sound of metal cutting flesh echoes all around the corridor.

Guzman has his right arm lifted, as if mimicking Flandre, while Flandre stands in place with her arm raised and trembling.

She retracts her arms and looks at her palm, then realizes the silver knife is stabbed in there.

She starts to whimper and aims to pull it off, but Guzman has other plans and runs at her, grabs her right wrist, pushes the knife all the way through her little hand, making her scream as the silver burns her, then he punches her face hard and sends her skidding on the floor away from himself.

He smiles, then asks "weren't you going to spread my guts around little girl?"

Flandre sits on the ground and admires her hand some more, takes a deep breath, then suddenly starts bawling loud, forcing Guzman to cover his ears. In her despair, she accidentally activates Starbow Break, Catadioptric, and Counter Clock, all at the same time.

Though frightened, Guzman stares at the massive concentration of bullets, wraps himself up with his cloak, then runs away from the area.

Flandre is left on the ground crying inconsolably as the pain in her little hand throbs intensely, the silver making her feel as though her hand is burning, and any attempt to remove the knife by herself only makes the pain worse.

The bullets explode violently around her, the explosions accompany her desperate screams, and the blood from her hands and the tears from her eyes flow unstoppably.

Finally, Sakuya arrives just as Flandre accidentally activate Cranberry Trap, and finds herself dodging the bullets for dear life.

Despair fills her heart upon hearing Flandre crying louder, then she shouts "young mistress please calm down! I can't reach you!"

Again, Flandre accidentally activates Starbow Break and Counter Clock, so Sakuya immediately shouts "SAKUYA'S WORLD!" and stops time just before a bullet hits her face.

She relaxes and looks to Flandre, then finds Meiling is standing just behind the vampire with her face covered in blood from the hole on her head, looking forward with intense, yet caring eyes straight at Sakuya, as if knowing where she'd be when she stopped time.

Sakuya understands that look, so she simply steps away from the bullets' range, then frees time.

Again, Flandre's desperate cries make her heart race, but Meiling, regardless of the shower of bullets striking her body, bends down and gently says "it's alright young mistress, I'm here. Everything's going to be alright. Just... let me take care of that."

Meiling's voice and gentle touch manage to calm Flandre enough to stop activating spell cards and bawling, but her tears and sobs won't stop.

Meiling embraces Flandre from behind with her left arm, then softly says "young mistress, I am going to pull the knife out. This is going to hurt you a lot, but I must ask you to be strong. You can take it. You are a strong girl. Now, are you ready?"

Sakuya watches with amazement as Flandre whimpers and nods, then allows Meiling to grab hold of the knife with her right hand.

Meiling counts to three, and just after three, she quickly pulls the knife off, making Flandre jerk and whimper in pain, then quickly fall asleep from the exhaustion.

Meiling looks at the knife, tosses it across the floor at Sakuya, then says "it's yours", to which Sakuya quickly replies "I should have gotten rid of them! Dammit!"

Meiling gets Sakuya's attention with a grunt, looks at the chief maid in the eyes with her own intense eyes, then nods.

Sakuya's eyes seems to get engulfed in fire after they turn scarlet, then she vanishes in an instant.

Meiling sighs and grabs hold of Flandre, gets up, then whispers "he attacks children so viciously. Truly, a dishonorable swine!"

After saying this, her face turns almost monstrous with blind rage, but after Flandre snores softly, she looks at her innocent face and calms down, then walks to the other side of the corridor with Flandre sleeping comfortably on her arms.

* * *

At the Garden of the Sun, outside Yuka's house, Kurumi enjoys her newfound freedom under the real sun, while Rika approaches Yuka with her Saboten Stock on hand, all while Elly glares at everyone of them, though keeping her most hateful glares for Yuka.

The flower youkai holds her closed parasol with her left hand, smiles and hums a happy tune to herself while caressing her flowers, until Rika approaches her, clears her throat to get her attention, and before Yuka can threaten her, she says "miss Yuka, I am so very sorry."

Yuka stares curiously at the maid, then says "if you are sorry for interrupting me, then please, don't."

Rika bows, then says "I mean, the other night... when I..."

Yuka lifts her right hand at Rika and says "I'll let that slide. I mean, you weren't yourself. Although, you did murder some flowers."

Rika bows again, opens her Saboten Stock, then rapidly says "that's why I brought you a gift, miss Yuka. To repay for the damage I caused", then pulls one of the orange flowers and presents it to the youkai.

Yuka stares at her gift, quickly gasps with surprise, then exclaims "you grew flowers like these? B-b-b... it takes great love and care to grow something like this!"

Rika peeks from the right side of the pot, then smiles and says "all that lives deserves love and care. Plants are no exception."

Yuka and Rika remain quiet for some time, then Rika says "I have two more, if you'll accept them."

Yuka grabs Rika and gives her a forceful hug, making Rika lift her hands with the plant and exclaims "wait, the flowers!"

Yuka somehow knows Rika will keep those plants safe, so she ignores the yelp and rubs her left cheek on Rika's right one and happily says "you must be one hell of an angel! Someone like you is ALWAYS welcome here!"

After saying that and finally releasing Rika, the jewel on Rika's sword glows blue, then Yuka smiles as she says "so remember, you and I are now friends, so don't forget to visit me sometimes~!"

Rika smiles at Yuka, nods, then asks "so where should we plant these? Oh, did you know these can live through all seasons?"

Yuka wraps an arm around Rika and leads her toward an unknown destination, saying "these children have said so plenty of times... They're also speaking quite highly of you sweetheart."

Meanwhile, far away from Yuka and Rika, Ail, Sanae, Budou and Phredia watch with anxiety, Ail with his Yozoragan mode active and a large bump on his head, then suddenly all gasp with relief and Ail says "good. Now that Yuka's on her side too, it should be easier to deal with her and Elly."

Budou suddenly sighs, then says "ahh, miss Rika's light is so... bright and... I like it."

Ail and Sanae both stare at Budou, then Ail grabs her and lifts her off the ground, then asks "what are you talking..."

When he looks at Rika, he sees a radiant and soothing light emanating from her very being, a light that makes him feel at ease and calm.

He turns his content sight to Elly, then gasps when he sees swirling black and red blobs of darkness all around her being, all intensifying when she looks at Yuka.

Budou suddenly jumps off Ail's arms and exclaims "papa is scared! What happened?"

Sanae places her hands on Ail's back and asks "what's wrong Ail?"

The boy shakes his head, looks at Elly, then realizes he's no longer seeing the blobs, then looks at Rika and can't see the light.

He looks at Budou and asks "so you can see their energy at all times? Why didn't you tell me?"

Sanae asks "Ail, what are you babbling about?"

Phredia flies to Budou's head while Ail says "while I held on to Budou, I could see their energy. I mean, Rika's and Elly's, and even Yuka's."

Sanae looks at Ail, then at Budou, then says "and the moment she jumped off you stopped seeing them, right?"

Ail nods, then Budou turns very serious, frowns, then says "it's not fun. Sometimes I see many scary things, even from our friends."

Ail kneels down and places his right ethereal wing on Budou for comfort, then says "it's alright, calm down... Still..."

As if suddenly realizing something, Ail opens his eyes wide, extends his right arm, then says "Budou, bite my arm!"

Almost crying, Budou asks "what? Papa, how could you ask something like that?"

Ail quickly replies "look, if you bite me hard enough while I'm like this, I'll be able to see what you see. that way, I'll be able to support you, so it's not a bad thing."

Budou groans and says "but papa, I can't!"

Sanae angrily adds "Ail, you really need to think before you open that mouth! Sometimes you can be so... stupid!"

Phredia flies closer to Ail's face, then punches the tip of his nose and sticks out her tongue at him.

Ail lowers his arm, ready to give up, then suddenly smirks and says "imagine I'm gramma Kanako, and I've just stolen your mama's magazines."

Sanae laughs hard along with Phredia, who sits on her shoulder, then says "as if that would work!"

Budou suddenly jumps toward Ail's right arm with her eyes glowing aquamarine and growling, then bites down hard growling "let go of mama's mag-zines!"

Ail, not expecting this to work either, screams and runs around in circles, rapidly shouting "ok, ok, ok, wah~! Budou, it's me, Ail~!"

Budou lets him go, points threateningly, then shouts "and don't touch mama's stuff again! Oh?"

After she realizes what she did, she suddenly starts to hyperventilate, then says "pa.. pa.. is.. a.. jerk~~!"

Bawling as she says the last word, she jumps on Sanae's arms, and after comforting Budou with hugs and gentle words, she glares at Ail and says "you idiot, look what you made her do!"

Ail blows on his forearm repeatedly, but smiles and says "yeah, ouch... but now I can see all your energies, and all the time! Not just when I'm manipulating energy, or holding on to Budou!"

Even Budou stops crying to stare with surprise at Ail along with Sanae, Phredia, and Kurumi, who lands between Ail and the girls and asks "did he say something stupid again?"

* * *

Back at the SDM, Guzman runs as though his life depended on it, yet has a smile on his face, ignoring the fact that his mirror cloak isn't covering him anymore.

He reaches the foyer, jumps over the rails of the small balcony of the first, lands on the ground floor hard, and as he recovers from the landing, he looks to his left with a smile.

Sakuya holds the knives on her hands backwards, stances like a real fighter, then glares at Guzman with her glowing scarlet eyes and says "you crossed a very dangerous line, garbage! Now return my knives..."

Her cheeks turn pink as she clenches her teeth, then continues, shouting "and give me back my underwear!"

Guzman smacks his left thigh, activating the magnet once more, then rummages through that same pocket, pulls out a brassiere and one panty, sniffs them, then smiles and says "that's no way to speak to your new master."

Sakuya jumps toward Guzman and launches a kick to his abdomen, sinks her foot deep inside into his stomach, then swings her right hand, aiming to cut his neck with her knife, but as expected, the magnet pushes her attack away and sends her flying backward through the air, where she flips and skids to a stop on her feet on the ground.

Guzman chuckles, even though he's in pain from the kick, taunts Sakuya by waving her underwear in the air, then says "you can't beat me, you sexy maid. Just give up and I promise to be gentle with you."

Sakuya's eyes glow as she narrows them and stares dangerously at the despicable man.

She throws away her knives, takes a deep breath, then rushes toward Guzman, catching him by surprise.

She punches his mouth, then his right cheek, kicks his abdomen, flip-kicks his face upward, sending him flying to the air, jumps after him, sink her nails around his neck, punches his face three times, and finally does a quick aerial summersault and kicks his upper abdomen as hard as she can with the back of her leg, sending him crashing down so hard to the ground, even the carpet scrunches up from the small crater that forms under his body.

Guzman growls furiously as he gets up while trembling in pain.

After standing up, and Sakuya lands in front of him, he throws away her clothes, raises his defenses, then shouts "I changed my mind! I'm going to kill you, **then** have you!"

Sakuya rushes toward him at the same time Guzman rushes forth roaring a war cry, then shouts "you won't faze me this time, you swine!"

Both Guzman and Sakuya wind their right fists and launch them at the same time.

Having longer arms, Guzman lands his fist on Sakuya's face first, however, Sakuya keeps her own arm straight, and lands a powerful punch straight to his left eye, then both are sent flying away from each other, and both land on their backs on the ground, though Sakuya recovers fast, while Guzman skids on the carpet before finally stopping.

Sakuya holds her bruised left cheek while breathing through her mouth, then says "I won't let you leave this place now! You will answer for what you have done!"

Guzman trembles violently as he gets up and glares at Sakuya and thinks "shit, she's become a threat! Gah, if I try to use the knives I'll have to shut down the magnet. Guess I'll have to use my specialty."

Guzman smiles as he stares at Sakuya, who takes a defensive stance and sternly asks "what the hell are you looking at?"

Guzman suddenly gets up, unsheathes his gun, then shoots his magical bullets, pulling that trigger as fast as he can and holding his gung tights, so the magnet won't send it flying away.

He laughs hard when Sakuya has to take evasive action to dodge the quick bullets, then shouts "yes, run! Run and dance, that should keep me entertained! Oh and don't think these will stop anytime soon, sweetheart! They'll keep coming at 'cha!"

Sakuya flips around like a professional acrobat, dodging all the bullets, though with some effort, and to her dismay, a card suddenly appears floating just above Guzman's gun.

As if already knowing what he's doing, he smiles and shouts "Dark Sign, Rapid Fire!"

Guzman's gun starts emanating a dark aura, and with just one squeeze of the trigger, Guzman is able to leave arcs of dark bullets in front of himself, then these bullets rush in unison straight forward, spreading slightly as they fly through the air.

Sakuya gasps at the sight and narrowly avoids the first wave by bending her body backward as low as to hit the ground with her back.

She gets back up as quickly as she can and watches as Guzman makes a large "X" in front of himself with his bullets, then thinks "dammit, those look dangerous! I need to find a way... a-ha!"

When the bullets fly toward her, and Guzman prepares a set of two horizontal arcs, Sakuya jumps high to the air, taking advantage of his lack of aerial defense, and screams a loud war cry as she falls down toward the man with her foot ready to strike his face.

All Guzman can do is watch as the maid flies down hard straight at him, unable to shoot again, yet enjoying the view of her underwear under her srikt, then suddenly feels a powerful strike on his forehead, though his hat stays in place, even though he is sent flying back until he crashes head-first against the wall.

If it wasn't for that ring of his, he would be dead, but instead, he pushes himself free from the wall and tries to regain his bearings as quickly as he can.

Sakuya gives him no time for that, and as she stands behind him, she winds a powerful right spin-kick that sends him flying straight out the front door when it lands hard on his back.

Sakuya runs outside, hoping to catch up to him, but screams with rage when she doesn't find him on the floor as she had hoped.

Exhaustion finally gets the best of her and she falls on her knees on the floor just under the doorway, and as she pants she says to herself "dammit! Dammit, dammit, **DAMMIT**! He escaped! That coward ran AWAY!"

She suddenly feels a pair of hands place themselves gently on her shoulders, and when she looks back with a fright, she relaxes when she sees the smiling faces of Flandre and Meiling, both bloodied up, Meiling bloodied all over her face, and Flandre all over her right arm.

She also notices Patchouli and Koakuma standing behind Meiling and Flandre, then Patchouli calmly says "it's alright Sakuya. You beat him. that's enough for today."

Sakuya stares at the girls for a little longer before re-accommodating herself and sitting with her back against the doorway, then smiles at the girls and starts to laugh.

The girls accompany her in a quick laugh, then Sakuya stares at Meiling and Flandre and asks "are you two alright?"

Flandre nods, while Meiling smiles warmly and says "we're youkai miss Sakuya. We'll be just fine."

Sakuya turns her head so she's facing the destroyed side of the doorway, then closes her eyes and whispers "good~!", and finally falls asleep.

Meiling and Flandre get scared, but Patchouli calms them down when she says "she's alright. She's only exhausted."

Meiling and Flandre both sigh with relief, then Meiling lifts Sakuya off the floor and walks inside, where Sakuya suddenly mumbles "burn my underwear."

The girls all gasp in surprise at the same time and stare at Sakuya in shock, not knowing the reason for such outrageous request.

* * *

Later, at the Garden of the Sun, after planting Rika's flowers around Ail's own giant light-blue and white flower, Yuka and Rika return to the house, where Ail, Budou, Sanae, Kurumi and Phredia await for them.

As they enter, Ail remembers something Reimu told him the day before.

_Reimu sits in front of Ail across the kotatsu, and with a serious face she says "from what you are telling me, this is turning out to be very dangerous for Elly. Yuka is going to kill her if this keeps up any longer." _

_Ail looks at Reimu with fright, then asks "but wait, won't the magic around here just restore her?"_

_ Reimu sighs, then says "the spell card rules is not without its flaws Ail. You see, when youkai... disagree, they end up fighting fiercely to their deaths. Most of the time, these fights end only when either one of the youkai is killed, though in some cases, it ends when one youkai can no longer move."_

_ Ail nods, then stares at Reimu as if edging her to continue._

_ Reimu sighs again, then says "when youkai fight like this, they don't aim for their bodies. Instead, they drain each other out of all the magic in them, and when either one is without any magic left, the other destroys that youkai's body, and since it doesn't have any more magic left..." _

_Ail finishes for Reimu, whispering "it will not revive again." _

_Reimu nods, then Ail, with a desperate and frightened look on his face, says "I'm definitely going to need Rika for this! Reimu, will you allow it?"_

_ Reimu nods, giving Ail great relief, then she says "but remember, if they start fighting, there is nothing you can do to stop them. They'll only attack you if you try to interfere, you understand?" _

Back at present, Ail sighs and thinks "we better do something now, while we still have the chance."

Yuka enters the house, and after her comes Rika, who accidentally bumps Elly's scythe only slightly, then quickly bows to apologize.

Elly doesn't even give her the chance to do so and shouts "hey you stupid maid, watch where the HELL you step!"

Rika gets a little nervous and stammers a bit, but finally composes herself, bows, then says "I'm sorry miss."

Elly ignores Rika's apologies and raises the back of her left hand to strike her, but Yuka grabs her hand long before she swings it, and with a very dangerous and ominous glare, she says "I have had it with your attitude! Get the hell out of here and NEVER return, or I'm going to kill you right here and now!"

Ail rushes outside, hoping Elly will chose to leave, but instead, the foolish youkai raises her scythe at Yuka.

Not waiting any longer, Ail opens a gap directly behind Elly, jumps in and tackles her before Yuka takes offense, then turns her around and pins her on the ground.

Elly shouts "get off me! I'm going to-", but before she finishes, Ail places his right hand on her forehead and activates Shou's and Shinki's blessings, and just like that, Elly stops fighting and remains limp, though fully conscious.

Yuka glares at Ail and threateningly says "you shouldn't have interfered! She was really getting on my nerves!"

Ail stands up and shouts "just how stupid can you be?"

Yuka looks surprised at Ail at first, but suddenly smiles with murderous intent and walks toward him.

Kurumi grabs Budou before she goes out to help her father, then whispers "it's ok. Stay here and it's going to be just fine."

Rika activate her Soraogan mode and gets in front of Yuka with her wings spread open, then says "miss Yuka, please listen. That girl over there loves you!"

Ail quickly stands up with Elly's arm around his neck and with his Yozoragan mode activated again, then says "that's right! Yuka, I've told you many times; at least acknowledge her devotion!"

Yuka angrily says "what do you two know? This girl is a pain in my side! All she does is try to get in my skirt, and it's REALLY irritating. Now she thinks she's better than me, so it's only natural to get rid of her!"

Rika stares at Yuka with compassion, then says "you know, I don't really know if your claims are true. All I see is a very devoted person who's just trying to show you her affection. And from what Ail has told me, you undervalue that a lot. So something like this was bound to happen eventually."

Ail stares at Yuka for a bit, using the new ability Budou gave him through that bite, then smiles and says "I see what's going on. Yuka, stop acting like you don't care when you really do care. You like this girl too, don't you?"

Yuka's cheeks turn pink and her eyes suddenly show confusion.

Rika turns around and flips her thumb up at Ail, then Elly, though still unable to move, sniffle and sobs, then says "no she doesn't. That man at the resort told me so. He said... he said Yukarin hates me! So-so why even care!"

Elly manages to lift her tear-filled face to look at Yuka, then says "so just kill me already. I don't have a purpose anymore anyway!"

Rika turns around to look at Elly, takes her off Ail's hands, gives her a hug, then says "aww, don't say that miss Elly. You're alive, and that makes you someone precious. As long as you're alive, you'll always have a purpose."

Yuka suddenly says "b-besides, that man's a... a liar. I mean... I don't, um... hate you. In fact, I like having you around...", and with these words she shocks even Sanae, and now all but Elly stare at Yuka with extremely shocked faces.

The flower youkai blushes and looks away from her house and everyone else, then asks "w-what? Do I have something on my face?"

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Hakurei Shrine, Medicine, Su-San and Kyo approach Reimu on the left-side porch, where she's quietly drinking her tea while Suzaku sleeps on her lap.

Kyo smiles as he approaches the maiden, waves his hand at her, then asks "Reimu, how are you? Everything alright over here?"

Reimu smiles back after swallowing the bit of tea in her mouth, then nods and says "quite peaceful. How about the village?"

Medicine chuckles, then says "Kasen is giving Minoriko another earful, but not before giving Luna a lecture on folding sheets."

Kyo sighs and says "she's so annoying."

Reimu and Kyo exchange stares, then Reimu smiles while hiding a bit of sadness, then asks "you sensed him, didn't you?"

Kyo nods, then quickly says "I don't know how much help I can be as I am now, but know I'll do my best to help out."

Reimu smiles, but before she can say anything, Suzaku wakes up and stares at both Kyo and Medicine.

Reimu tries to introduce them, but before she can speak again, Suzaku jumps to the floor next to Reimu, spread her wings, then starts to sing Rika's family song as loudly as she can, making is sound a little sadder than usual, all while keeping her eyes on Kyo and Medicine.

The young man stares at the bird, then asks "hey, what's wrong with her?"

Reimu feels as though she's about to start crying as she replies "I don't know. Suzaku, what's wrong?"

Suzaku continues the song and starts to cry herself, then suddenly a small flock of sparrows and greenfinches fly around the visitors and perch on the leafless trees, then all chirping rapidly, as if trying to sing along with the bird of vermilion.

* * *

Back at Yuka's house, after everything settles down, Rika and Ail have Yuka and Elly sitting around the table, facing each other directly.

From behind, Rika taps Elly's shoulders, then Elly looks at Yuka with a sad look in her eyes and says "I... I'm sorry Yuka-sama. I acted rashly and insulted you by doing so. Please, I humbly... ask that you f-forgive me."

Having said all that wasn't easy for Elly, yet, having Rika there to support her, even though she really doesn't know her that well, helped her manage through that.

Ail approaches Yuka, taps her right shoulder, then says "alright, she apologized, just like she promised. Now it's your turn."

Yuka blushes as she faces Elly, then looks slightly to the left and says "alright. Ahem; Elly, I am sorry I made you feel so bad. Um... you... that is... I want you to know that, um... I'm glad you're with me again... and I want to..."

Yuka finally looks straight at Elly's longing eyes, then says "look, I like you, alright? I really like it when you're here and I am very glad you are so devoted, and that you protected my mansion for so long, and that you are still willing to protect me even now! So let's forget what that man said and put this behind us, alright?"

Elly quietly stares at Yuka for a moment, then nods, smiles, and with tears in her eyes, she says "th-thank you so much, miss Yuka-sama! I've always wanted to hear that from you, and you finally did! Thank you!"

Yuka crosses her right leg over her left, looks away with a pout, then says "alright, alright, you don't have to get all mushy about it!"

Elly nods, then suddenly jumps over the table, knocking it, Yuka and Yuka's chair to the ground, and while she hugs and rubs her cheek against Yuka's she shouts "LADY YUKARIN~!"

Yuka continues to pout as she groans, then says "now stop doing that already. And stop trying to jump me at nights! I want to sleep!"

Elly quickly replies "ok", but continues to rub her cheek against Yuka's while smiling widely.

Moments later, Ail, Budou, Phredia, Sanae and Rika stand just outside Yuka's house, looking at Yuka, Elly and Kurumi, who stand right in front of the house.

The visitors all wave at their hosts, then Ail smiles and says "really, I am glad you didn't end up trying to kill each other! That would have been awful! Friends shouldn't fight like that, ever!"

Rika nods and says "I agree. I am so glad we were able to help you guys out."

Sanae grabs Ail's hand, and hiding her disappointment, she says "maybe next time I'll be of more help."

Budou grabs Sanae's and Ail's hands, then nods and says "me too mama! Next time we help papa some more!"

Ail smiles and chuckles, then says "it's alright. Just you two being here was more than enough."

Yuka face palms and groans, then desperately asks "why is everyone being so mushy?"

Elly suddenly rushes in front of Rika and gives her a tight hug, and before Rika can ask, she says "miss Rika, I had given up on everything. I thought Yuka liked Ail more than me, then I thought she also hated me. I was aiming to get killed; end it all, but you, your kind words, you saved me. Thank you."

After separating from Elly, Rika smiles at her and says "it's alright miss Elly. Please, if you ever feel down again, contact me."

Elly giggles and bows to Rika, then says "thank you so much. Will do", causing the jewel on Rika's sword to glow blue for five full seconds.

Elly then turns to Ail, bows, then says "I also owe you an apology and my thanks. Really, I misjudged you... um, again. And thanks for helping me out back there."

Ail bows his head, opens a gap to the Hakurei Shrine behind himself, and while everyone enters it, he says "it's alright Elly. Just know you have a friend in me too. And Yuka, remember to at least acknowledge her some more."

Yuka grabs Elly by her shoulder, violently pulls her back, then groans and says "enough with the mushy stuff! I get it! Jeez, so annoying!"

Ail smiles and chuckles, then enters his gap and disappears from the garden.

Yuka turns around, looks at Kurumi and Elly, then says "well, that was a fun day. Let's go and eat something now. I'm famished!"

Elly and Kurumi both jump to the air, raising their fists, then exclaims "food, yeah!"

Just before entering the house, Yuka suddenly says "hmm, I think I like Ail after all."

Elly rushes to the air with raging eyes, shouting "I'll kill him~!"

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Scarlet Devil Mansion's island, Guzman hides himself with his mirror cloak and keeps hiding behind trees whenever Kimi or Kali speak amongst themselves or move.

Wounded, tired, hungry, and even scared, Guzman looks all around himself, waiting for a chance to get away unnoticed.

Already his mirror cloak failed to hide him twice, once from the magician, and another from the young vampire.

He runs away from Kimi and Kali, then thinks "I never expected this! They were waiting for me, but how? How did they know? Ugh, that maid really let me have it. I guess Julia's info isn't as accurate as I thought. I need to retreat and find a safe place to hide and heal. After that, I'll head straight back to Nitori!"

Reaching the lake, he activates his floating boots and skates on the water, crashing against a few icy orbs that float on the water that Cirno had prepared for her practice, grunting every time they explode on his ankles.

Cirno stares with curiosity at the disappearing orbs, gasps, then flies away while shouting "the water is exploding! Dai-chan! Dai-chan, where are you?"

Guzman reaches the other side and continues to run, but suddenly stops when a familiar shadow is cast on him.

He reveals himself from under his cloak, then smirks as the familiar childish voice of Remilia, sounding playful, says "running away after coming all the way and going through the trouble of harming my servants... and my sister. And I thought you were more than just a mere coward."

Guzman scoffs, then asks "shouldn't you be turning to ashes, young lady?"

Remilia flaps her wings to hover just a few feet above the ground, smiles, and elegantly places her right hand on the crystal brooch on her chest, then says "an ally gave me a special gift not long ago, and now the sun or the rain are of no concern to me. Now you, on the other hand, are of great concern to me. I heard you wanted to take over my mansion; a very laughable thing that sprung out of my oldest maids' mouths."

Guzman grunts and clenches his teeth as he frowns, then says "you can keep that wretched place!"

Remilia chuckles, then says "this is the second time you challenge me, and yet, once again you want to run away. Well, I won't let you."

Her voice and her face become stern as she continues "you tried to take my chief maid by force, tortured my gate guard for your own pleasure, you made my sister cry and lose control, endangering both my mansion AND my servants, you dare lay your hands on my librarians, and you still think I'll just let you go?"

Guzman takes his gun on his right hand, then one of the silver knives on his left, then prepares to attack.

Remilia drops on her feet to the ground, smiles mischievously, then says "good, that's what I wanted to see! Be a man and take responsibility!"

Guzman aims his gun at Remilia and shouts "shut up already, you brat!", then shoots.

* * *

At the Hakurei Shrine, Ail's gap opens up, and Rika immediately runs out of it and rushes to her mistress, calling "miss Reimu! Miss Reimu, is everything alright?"

Ail and the others stare at Rika with wonder, then look at each other, nod, and run out of the gap after Rika.

When they reach the shrine's left-side entrance, they find Suzaku standing next to Reimu, Reimu sitting behind the kotatsu, eating some cookies while staring into her teacup, and Mima looking surprised at Rika, then at Ail, Budou and Sanae.

Overall, everything looks quite normal, except for the look of confusion on Reimu's face.

Before Sanae can ask what happened, Rika beats her to it and asks "my lady, what made Suzaku sing the song? She just won't tell me. She says it's in due time! What happened?"

Although Reimu looks at Rika, her eyes seem distant, and all she manages to say is "Rika. I was going to ask that too."

Mima suddenly says "I don't know what happened. I came out here to see why the birds were being so loud and found your chicken singing out loud. The hunk and the poison doll were here, but they were as surprised as we were. Then Reimu..."

With distant eyes as she looks into her teacup, Reimu softly says "she just started to sing. I felt sad when Suzaku started to cry... and when I looked at them, I wanted to cry too."

Rika looks with surprise at her mistress and asks "what is going on here?"

Again, before anyone can say anything, there is another interruption.

There is a loud bang that frightens Budou to fly away as fast as she can, screaming out in terror, making Sanae and Phredia chase after her, Sanae calling for Budou as she takes flight.

Ail watches as Budou leaves, sighs, then turns around to see Hatate and Tenshi fighting over being first.

Hatate and Tenshi press their faces against each other, and Hatate growls "I'll give it to Rika!", to which Tenshi pushes back and growls "no, I'm her friend! I'll give it to her!"

Rika is about to walk outside and stop them, but Ail lift his arm to signal her to stay inside, opens a large gap above the two girls, and from the gap come a large steel washtub that hits the two girls at the same time, and so hard, the vibration form the impact causes the entire shrine to tremble.

Moments later, after everything has settled down, Budou is returned safely, sitting on Sanae's lap, even though Mima begs her to go with her, and even Reimu has returned to her senses, Hatate, who has a massive bump on her head, throws Guzman's hat on the table, sighs with frustration, then says "nothing! I'm sorry miss Rika, miss Reimu, but we failed you! All we could find was this imprinted under the hat itself."

Hatate turns the hat around, pushes it inside-out, and under the top of the hat are the letters in white "KN".

Reimu sighs with frustration and says "great. So we got nothing", then Ail and Sanae suddenly gasp and look at each other.

Reimu asks "you know what this is?"

Ail rapidly replies "it's Nitori's! That's Nitori's brand!"

Tenshi, whose bump is being treated by Rika, Rika herself, Reimu and Mima all gasp, while Hatate rubs her chin and says to herself "hmm, this is too advanced for them."

Sanae nods while looking at Ail, then he stands up, picks up the hat, looks at it from all sides, then sighs and sadly says "this is Nitori's. Nitori has been... But why? Why should she help him?"

Reimu stands up and rapidly says "calm down! This won't help!", which helps Ail calm his anxious heart, then Reimu continues more calmly "the kappa wouldn't allow something like this to fall, and let alone, stay in the wrong hands. Rika, this is your incident. As promised, I will not interfere. Go to the kappa and question them about this."

Rika smiles as she stands up straight, salutes Reimu, then says "I won't fail you, my lady!"

Ail looks with determination at Reimu, then says "I'll go with her!"

Sanae and Budou both try to protest for his safety, but he shouts "no more! No more hiding! I want to help, and I can take Rika to the underground resort with ease!"

Knowing she will be unable to sway his mind, Sanae turns to Rika and sternly says "you make sure he stays away from that man if you see him!"

Rika bows, then says "I'll beat him up before he does anything stupid, miss Sanae."

Reimu sighs as she crosses her arms and closes her eyes, then opens her right eye to look at Hatate, then asks "and where's Aya?"

Hatate smiles weakly at Reimu, then says "she's at the Devil's Mansion right now. Aya went there to take as many pictures as she can of all his gadgets. She said she'll follow him until she finds his hideout, and asked me to tell you that she won't return until she finds it."

Reimu sighs, then turns her attention to the hat, then says "I think we may have found it already. If you see her again, tell her I asked her to stop chasing him. Ail, Rika, you go to that resort as soon as you are ready and get some answers. If this goes to our favor, we'll have this man trapped by tomorrow!"

* * *

Back at the road that leads to the Misty Lake, while the sky turns gold, blood flies all over the air, staining the ground, the dead autumn leaves that are scattered everywhere, and the trees.

Guzman's left arm has a large gash that, although it's healing even faster than a youkai, it still spills out a lot of blood that continues to stain everywhere it splashes, as Guzman flips backwards to avoid Remilia's claw.

Remilia herself is not without damage; her torso is full of gashes from the silver knife Guzman holds, her blood spilling everywhere as she moves around, staining her dress as well, but she moves around as though she's not even hurt, and uses the blood to shoot small but dangerous scarlet lances at Guzman, managing to strike him hard on his abdomen during one of his back flips.

Guzman grunts when the lance strikes him, and lands on his back on the ground.

Remilia sneers at the man as she lands a few feet in front of him, then says "I'm sure Reimu will forgive me if I kill something like you. It's not like you'll be missed anyway. Good bye Guzman. I'll make sure to burn whatever is left of you... if there is anything left of you after I'm done here."

She raises her right hand to prepare another spear and summon her spell card, then a silver knife goes right through the palm of her hand.

She stares at the knife in on her hand with a neutral face, and while her attention is on the knife, Guzman rushes to her, grabs her wrist and pushes the knife further in, then tries to kick her face, but Remilia grabs his leg with her left hand, smiles and laughs at him, then throws him away back down the road, where he skids to a halt on his back on the ground once more.

Remilia takes the knife and pulls it off, sends it flying to the lake with a flick of her finger, smiles, then says "unlike my sister, I have more experience in battle, and thus, I have more tolerance to pain than her. Still, to try such a cowardly tactic on me... I'll make sure to make you suffer until you beg for your death!"

Guzman gets up, his ring has already healed his arm and most of his other wounds, yet he looks tired and a little worried.

He pulls the second silver knife from his belt, smiles at Remilia, then says "if you think I'll let a brat like you kill me, you have another thing coming."

He aims his gun and shoots as many bullets as he can, but Remilia's speed prove to be more than a match for those bullets, and as she zips around like a pink and scarlet blur, she says "Reimu's bullets are more dangerous than these things! Come on, do something useful for a change!"

Taking her word, Guzman stops shooting and holds his gun by the barrel, spreads both arms in the air and shouts "COME AT ME!"

Remilia smiles wickedly and obliges to his wishes, zipping toward him at insane speeds, then Guzman swings his left hand downward, stabbing Remilia's right shoulder and holding her still just before she can reach him, then swings his right arm hard and strikes her across the face with the hilt of his gun, then swings his arm again to striker her right cheek with the back of the gun, sending her flying back and leaving a large gash on her shoulder as he brutally slides the knife out of her shoulder.

Remilia winces in pain while holding her arm, but manages to slowly get up as she whisper "shit, shit, shit, shit. That one hurt..."

Guzman laughs, then loudly asks "hurts, doesn't it, little brat?"

Remilia smirks as her eyes glow scarlet, then rushes forth.

Guzman wastes no time and rushes forth as well.

Their war cries can be heard from afar, and as the last of the light of day leaves the peaceful-looking cloudy skies, the sound of metal against flesh echoes for several seconds before there is only silence left.

The first snowflake of winter falls from the sky, and from the island, Kimi looks toward where Remilia and Guzman are fighting.

With worry in her voice, she says to herself "he's out again. Should I help, I wonder..."

Kali walks to Kimi's left, then asks "are you talking to yourself again?"

Kimi raises her hand, ready to strike the back of Kali's head, but sighs and simply walks back to the lake, stepping inside the water and sinking while lost in thought.

Kali stares at Kimi for a moment, smiles wickedly when she's out of sight, then says "she's getting soft. This might give me a good chance."

* * *

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenarios belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Budou, Phredia, Luna Rivers, Kyo, Kimi and Kali were created by Willie G.R.

Guzman's Dark Sign, Rapid Fire was created by Willie G.R. Any similarities are strictly coincidental.

Rika Onkamikami and Suzaku were created by Snapshot 2010

OCT 15 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Again I apologize for the previous message. Really, it was just one person leaving comments, and it made me feel like I was really not doing right. Ugh, I don't like it when I get like that, so again, sorry. Still, I am lazy, and also, at least comments feed the heart... and that is GREAT food.  
**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N:**

**WARNING, this chapter contains bloody scenes, so if you're not fond of those, please hit the back button. To the rest, please enjoy this long chapter. Oh yes, thanks for the extra comments. Take notice they uplifted me to finish this chapter faster.

* * *

**

It's late morning at the Hakurei Shrine, and already, Rika, Reimu and Mima are all wide awake.

Rika awaits for Ail to come and take her to the Kappa-pa resort, while Reimu waits for Aya to come over, or Hatate to come with good news. By now, the snow has started to pile up, and what few leaves are left on the trees are either falling off, or getting covered in snow before disappearing from sight.

Inside the shrine, Mima and Suzaku watch with amusement as Rika and Reimu pace left and right beside each other, both waiting anxiously.

There's a knock on the back door, Reimu and Rika gasp and smile, and from the other side, Remilia says "Reimu, I need to talk to you~!", then both Reimu and Rika frown and sigh in disappointment.

Rika quickly approaches the back entrance, saying "just a second, I'm coming", and the moment she opens the sliding doors she gasps, covers her mouth with both hands and screams.

Remilia sounds a bit annoyed as she says "jeez, it's not that bad", while Reimu asks "Rika, what's wro- WHOA! Remilia, what the hell happened?"

Sakuya stands to the right side of Remilia, bowing with an apologetic smile and saying "sorry for the sudden intrusion."

Remilia stands with an annoyed face, placing her bloodied hands on her waist, her dress is completely bathed in blood from the many cut wounds on her body, and torn almost everywhere, her shoulder is still bleeding, her left wing is missing and even with all those injuries on her, she stares casually at everyone.

She lifts her bloodied left arm, points at Reimu, then bravely says "I couldn't kill him!"

Reimu sweats while staring back with disbelief, holding on to a stack of bandages, then shouts "oh, I can see that already! Now get out, you're staining the whole shrine with your blood!"

Remilia and Sakuya look at the floor under the vampire, then realize she is leaving a large pool of blood just under her feet that trails all the way back outside.

A few moments later, while Reimu, Sakuya, and Rika wrap Remilia's arms in bandages, the vampire says "I'm sorry Reimu, but I got cocky and **this** happened. I thought I had him, but it turns out he was just playing with me. He really knows how to fight dirty."

_Remilia remembers the night before, and how she rushes straight at Guzman with just her bare claws, while Guzman charges at her with the silver knife he stole from Sakuya. _

_Just as they are in reach, Guzman and Remilia lock hands and push against each other._

_ Remilia smiles back at Guzman, who chuckles as he smiles back, and disregarding all decency and honor, he swings his right leg and kicks Remilia between her legs and making her to let go, and before she's even given a moment to recover, he brutally assaults he with Sakuya's knife, cutting her abdomen four times, then grabs her left wing, crushes it in his hand, making Remilia grunt with pain, then cuts it off in a quick swing._

_ He kicks the back of Remilia's left leg, knocks her to the ground, jumps on her, then uses both hands to try and push the knife into her chest._

_ Remilia grabs the knife by the blade and pushes back with all her might, even whimpering as the knife gets closer to her heart, slipping from her grip because of the blood._

_ Guzman suddenly jumps off her while screaming, and when Remilia takes a look, she realizes Sakuya has just saved her and is assaulting Guzman relentlessly while moving around him as quickly as she can. _

_Screaming with rage as she attacks, Sakuya kicks and punches Guzman hard, but is unaware that Guzman is preparing the knife to strike. _

_Noticing this, Remilia shouts "jump back!", to which Sakuya stops her attack and jumps back just as Guzman tries to stab her lower abdomen._

_ Remilia jumps to the air and quickly falls back down, readying her claws for another attack, but Guzman throws the knife and lands it just below her chest. _

_Remilia falls on her face and starts coughing hard, so Sakuya worriedly rushes to her mistress, manages to see where the knife is, then pulls it off with haste._

_ When she turns around to attack Guzman again, the coward is long gone, leaving a small trail of blood that disappears in the distance, but Sakuya is too worried about her mistress' well being to go chasing after him, and without hesitation, she rips off a piece of her skirt and starts tending to Remilia's chest wound._

_

* * *

_

Back at present, Rika retracts her mint-green glowing hands, breathes heavily, then shakes her head as she says "it's too much! I... I can't heal her anymore."

Reimu pats Rika's shoulder and says "it's alright. You need to rest and recover. Remember, you're going to his hideout!"

Remilia lifts her right wing and exclaims "you found that roach's nest?"

Reimu stares angrily at Remilia and says "you aren't going anywhere until you rest too. You leave this to Rika and Ail."

Remilia groans in disappointment, and while Sakuya smiles and places a supporting hand on her shoulder, Remilia says "dammit, I wanted to rip his head off at least."

Sakuya suddenly backs away from Remilia, then the vampire feels something warm wrap itself around her, and when she looks back her eyes become large pink hearts as she gasps and smiles.

Ail stands with a stern face behind her, placing his left ethereal wing on her back, then says "I'm sorry I couldn't help you my lady, but that man even has **me** keeping my distance from him."

Somehow, Remilia's wounds start healing ten times faster, and a tiny left wing springs out of the small stem that used to be her fully grown wing on her back, just before Ail lifts his wing and says "there. You should be in top shape after you sleep."

Remilia swoons at the sight of Ail and his wings, then Sakuya quickly stands behind her, holds her by her arms, preventing her from hitting the ground, while concernedly shouting "my lady, get a hold of yourself!", all while Remilia's eyes remain a pair of pink hearts while she stares at Ail.

Reimu approaches Ail, then says "I still can't believe this, but if what you say is true..."

Ail sighs, rubs his eyes, deactivates his blood limit, then looks seriously at Reimu as he says "I don't want to believe this either, but if she did help him deliberately, I'll bring her to you."

Rika quickly adds "remember, if he's really there, you keep away from him! I gave my word to miss Sanae, and I intend to keep it."

Ail smiles with fright as he raises both hands to chest-height, then says "hey, hey, don't worry. I'll keep my distance. Don't go beating me up just yet."

Remilia quickly recovers from the infatuation, frowns, and suddenly, with an innocent and disappointed look on her face, she says "uuu~"

Ail, Reimu and Rika stare at Remilia and Sakuya, then Remilia, with a very disappointed frown, repeats "uuu~", and points at Ail with a bandaged and trembling right arm.

Sakuya sweats and smiles sheepishly, then says "um, if it's alright mister Ail, my lady would like to see your wings again."

Ail looks at Remilia with curiosity, closes his eyes, activates his blood limit, and the moment his ethereal wings spring forth, Remilia's face sparkles with excitement as her smile covers her face and a twinkle glistens in her eyes, in the rare innocent, and happy look on the vampire's face.

Reimu chuckles as she looks at Ail, then says "you heartbreaker you. Keep it up and all those 'friends' of yours will want a piece of you... including **that** princess of the night over there."

In half a second, light-green laser and blue beam-stars fly straight to Reimu, Rika and Remilia, creating a parameter around Ail, and before they realize what is going on, Sanae and Budou stand in front of Ail, spreading their arms around him and staring angrily at them.

Budou threateningly says "my papa! Nobody gets close!", and Sanae adds "nobody better have funny ideas with my Ail-kun!"

A drop of sweat rolls down the left back side of Ail's head as he smiles with fright and asks "A-Ail-kun? Um, what are you doing here?"

Reimu can't contain her laughter, and while she slapping her knees and laughs, she manages to ask "kun? Ail-kun?", then drops on the cold ground and rolls around laughing, while Rika stares worriedly at Ail, and Remilia looks like she's about to cry, pathetically saying "uuu~"

* * *

Meanwhile, at the front edges of the Youkai Forest, Guzman sits on a rock after starting a small fire, then stares at the wounds on his arm as it finally closes up.

He looks at his shirt and jeans and notices the bloodstains on them, even though they are dark colored, then lifts his shirt to see the remaining bruises on his fit abdomen slowly vanish before his eyes.

He scoffs, then says to himself "I messed up real good back there. I let my guard down and relied on old information. Tch, a mistake I won't be making again."

He suddenly gasps and jumps onto hiding when a small shadow casts itself on the snow.

When he looks up, he sees Hatate flying by, and notices when something falls off the large green bag she carries.

He realizes she hasn't seen him, so he jumps out of hiding, extends his arm over the fire, and catches a rolled up newspaper before it lands on the flames.

He calmly returns to the rock, sits on it, unrolls the paper, and the first thing he reads is the name of the paper "_Limited_ Bunbunmaru, Wolf View & Kakashi Spirit Newspaper", which he grins and scoffs at.

His grin immediately changes to a terrorized frown when he suddenly realizes his name is on the headline "Guzman at large again", and below it is a clear photo of him pushing the knife through Flandre's hand.

He stares at the photo with terror for a few seconds, turns the page, and immediately notices his name is on the headline just above a photo of him, this one showing as he punches Meiling's stomach and bites her right wrist.

Guzman grunts, then whispers "shit, who the *****? Who's the bastard that took these? I never even saw a camera flash! Still, to get this close to me undetected!"

He start turning page after page and sees more and more photos of his attack to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, as well as some older photos of the attack on the village, fear creeping over his spine the more he sees.

He knows it's only a matter of time before Nitori runs into this.

As he looks at the last pages, he thinks "I better do it now; no time to be resting. I need to go down there, take all I may need, and get the heck out. I'll find a hiding place later."

He suddenly balls the paper and throws it into the fire, then growls.

He bends his back a little, to look at the ground while he thinks, then looks to his left with his eyes, then his right, then thinks "and there he is. Whoever this guy is, he's good. He moves fast... but I can catch him. I just need to draw him to me. Yeah, I think I know just how."

Guzman unsheathes the stolen combat knife and rushes toward the trees directly in front of him, screams as he jumps, and starts stabbing to the ground repeatedly the moment he lands.

As he stabs hard, he loudly grunts "that's what you **get** for crossing me!"

His face seems twisted in rage and hatred as he repeatedly stabs the bit of snow and ground, then suddenly smiles sinisterly and stops.

His sinister smile widens, then suddenly disappears from sight, and for a few seconds, the crackling of the fire is the only sound heard in the area.

A twig snaps on the tree branch just above where Guzman was, then Aya's figure appears boldly looking down, taking as many pictures as she can, saying to herself "he's gone to the river. I better... eh? Wait, there's nothing here."

Aya finally realizes there is absolutely nothing, other than snow and a hole on the ground where Guzman was just stabbing, then decides to retreat.

When she turns around, she gasps, screams, and several sounds of metal on flesh echo all through the forest.

* * *

At the Hakurei Shrine, Suzaku suddenly springs on her feet, squawks loudly, startling even Rika, then quickly takes flight, exists the shrine through a window, and starts flying all around the shrine grounds.

Rika and Reimu rush out the front door, being careful as to not trip on the sleeping vampire on the living room's floor, then look up to see despair on Suzaku's white eyes.

Rika suddenly shouts "Suzu-chan, what is happening now?"

Reimu looks a bit confused at Rika, then asks "Suzu-chan?"

Rika smiles at Reimu and immediately says "well yes. I thought it would be appropriate."

A drop of sweat rolls down the left side of Reimu's head, then she says to herself "at least it's not Ail-kun", then chortles.

Suzaku goes another lap around the shrine as she telepathically says to both Reimu and Rika "there's danger. Something terrible has happened. I'm not sure what, but I have a very bad feeling. I'll come down as soon as I make sure the shrine is safe."

Rika and Reimu watch as Suzaku flies toward the lake behind the shrine, then Mima and Ail exit the shrine through the front entrance and look toward Suzaku.

Ail turns his attention to Rika, then says "Rika, it's time to go. We've wasted enough time already."

Mima chuckles, then says "yeah. You better hurry, or Sanae might think you are just trying to take her _Ail-kun _away."

After finishing the sentence, both Mima and Reimu start laughing quite hard, making Ail blush with embarrassment as he speaks in a low tone of voice "cut it out already."

Reimu and Mima walk toward each other, hang an arm around each other's necks, then continue laughing away, unaware that Sakuya is standing behind them, crossing her arms and glaring at both of them with an ominous aura emanating all around her.

Rika turns away, forgetting about Sakuya, then the mansion's maid angrily says "you're going to wake my mistress up!", then smacks both Reimu and Mima on the back of their heads, then promptly returns to Remilia inside the shrine.

When Rika turns around, she finds Mima and Reimu sharing an equally large bump on their heads while lying beside each other on the ground, all while still laughing.

The shrine's maid looks at Ail and asks "what just happen?"

Ail scratches the right side of his head, then shrugs and says "I'm as lost as you are."

Rika shakes her head, look at Ail, then says "Suzu-chan says there's no danger around here, so let's go to the kappa now."

Ail nods, then opens a gap to the left, then Reimu, who is miraculously healed and already standing, smirks with jagged teeth as she looks at Ail, then says "remember Rika, you have to take care of Ail-kun for Sanae."

Mima suddenly stands to Reimu's immediate left and adds "we wouldn't want to see our pwecious Ail-kun getting hurt now."

Ail's face turns beet red and looks away, while Mima and Reimu start laughing hard once more.

Rika sighs and face palms, then looks at Ail and says "come on mister Ail, let's just go."

Ail nods, then he and Rika enter the gap, leaving the two hyenas to laugh on their own.

While Reimu and Mima continue to laugh, they are unaware that Sakuya is behind them once again, glaring at them with white round eyes covered by a dark shadow.

Sakuya raises both hands, and as she strikes down, she shouts "my lady is sleeping!", then both Reimu and Mima grunt after getting struck hard again.

As they get up, Reimu angrily says "hey, maid, remember where you are!", and Mima adds "let her sleep in her OWN bed, and let us have our fun!"

Sakuya is suddenly holding a set of knives on both hands as she prepares for battle, and asks "oh, isn't this supposed to be a shrine?"

Reimu and Mima stand up with their weapons of choice, amulets and needles for Reimu, and a crescent moon staff for Mima, all smile at each other, then a large fight cloud forms as they argue and fight.

Suzaku perches on the edge of the shrine's roof to Suika's right, preening herself contently while the girls fight, and Suika looks curiously at the bird of vermilion and asks "who are you?"

Suzaku tweets, then telepathically says "I'm Suzaku. Rika-sama's familiar."

Suika smiles and says "I'm Suika. And why are those guys fighting again?"

Suzaku stares at Suika, then at the fight cloud, then tweets again before saying "I believe they are fighting over dango."

Suika stares curiously at Suzaku, then at the girls, then says "oh. I should buy some for them later."

Suzaku drools, and immediately and excitedly replies "good idea!"

* * *

Down at the Kappa-pa Resort, just three steps away from the entrance, Ail's gap opens up, and Ail and Rika both walk out at the same time, and immediately after, they both approach the closed gates.

Three seconds after, Julia's holographic body materializes to their left, startling Rika for a moment.

Julia arranges her glasses as she stares at the guests, then says "oh my, another lucky girl wishes to stay with you at that couple's room. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid the resort is now officially closed."

Rika and Ail both blush to the point they feel their faces are about to burst from the pressure, but they both shake their heads, then Ail says "Julia, that's not funny! Besides, we're here to see Nitori on urgent business!"

Julia looks slightly disappointed as she asks "not a mate? Well, what's this urgent business?"

Ail quickly reveals Guzman's old cowboy hat, Julia gasps as soon as she sees it, and unable to hide her excitement, she exclaims "finally! This is all I need to prove lady Nitori that Guzman is a wicked man!"

Rika narrows her left eyebrow and asks "so she's not aware of his deeds?"

Julia places her left hand on the hat and starts beeping, and after the beeping stops, she looks at Ail and Rika again, then hurriedly says "no. To her, Guzman is a saint! But with all this information... oh my goodness, he even shot children! Mister Ail, miss.., um, please excuse me but-"

Before she can ask, Rika bows and says "my name is Rika Onkamikami. And if you knew all that, you should have told miss Nitori!"

Ail places a hand on Rika's shoulder, shakes his head, then says "she didn't. It's the hat."

Julia nods and says "yes. Without my lady Nitori's knowledge, I installed a recording unit on this hat. All he saw and did while wearing this hat was recorded, and now I have all the evidence I need to prove to lady Nitori I was right!"

Julia suddenly arranges her glasses and stares between Ail and Rika, then hurriedly says "go in, find lady Nitori, and tell her everything! He's coming!"

Ail and Rika quickly turn around, both thinking if ending it all right now, but Julia grabs them both and turns them around again, opens the large gates to the resort as fast as she can, almost breaking them off their hinges, then exclaims "no! He has a ring that heals him faster than a youkai and gives him monstrous strength, his hat has many uses, including the effect of inducing confusion and delusion on to others, and he constantly steals other inventions from lady Nitori's storage!"

Again, Ail and Rika turn around to face Guzman, but Julia grabs them again, pushes them inside, then shouts "GO! Tell lady Nitori, she must know. She know how to stop him! I will hold him off while you do just that! And please, don't blame my lady for what that man did. To her, he's like an angel."

After saying that, she closes the gate so fast that after they slam together, the left door loses some hinges and tilts slightly inward.

Inside the resort, Ail and Rika look at each other as they get up, and as if discussing what course to take, they stand in place for a minute, then suddenly rush toward the offices, just as Julia asked.

* * *

A few minutes earlier, Guzman runs through the Youkai Forest, literally covered from head to toe with Aya's blood, getting the attention of all the youkai in the area due to the scent as he rushes toward the river.

He looks around and notices the youkai gathering around the trees, all staring toward him, then says "hmm, they caught the scent quicker than I thought. No matter, I'm almost there. Heh, I'll kill two birds with one stone like this. HAH, I made a joke! No matter. Now to get cleaned up before getting to the resort."

He's just about to run into a pack of wolf youkai that seem to be eagerly awaiting for him, but he takes a sudden left turn and reaches the river bank.

He jumps into the waters and dives, staining the waters in red as Aya's blood get cleaned off his body and clothes.

The blood continues to stain the waters as it flows down-stream, where Hina, as usual, is happily summoning curses to her, sinking her legs in the water and raising her hands in the air, closing her eyes with a smile on her face.

When she finishes collecting a massive amount of misfortunes, she opens her eyes and lowers her hands and head, then says "my, so much misfortune. Almost enough to kill a youkai even. What kind of human would have this much... eh?"

As she lowers her sight, she notices the bloody waters and instinctively flies out of the river.

She looks down with fright and asks "what in the world? Who could be losing so much blood? Whoever it is, it's staining the entire river!"

Meanwhile, Guzman swims with all his might so as not to be taken away by the currents, swimming in deeper and deeper until he finally reaches to bottom.

He comes across an odd rock formation that look polished and almost unnatural, and to their left is a concentration of cattail stems that seem to be out of place.

Guzman smiles as he sinks his hand into the concentration of cattails, reveals a small red button between them, presses it, then the polished rocks break open in the center, revealing two small doors that slowly slide open, then Guzman gets sucked in by a swirl caused by the vacuum of the doors.

After Guzman is sucked in, the doors close up fast and everything is left looking as though nothing ever happened.

Going through a large tube that acts like a slide, Guzman smiles as he reaches the exit, then he's shot out of the tube and lands on a soft and colorful mattress made to cushion the fall and absorb the excess water.

After he recovers and stands up, he watches as Julia slams the doors to a close, breaking the left door lose from its hinges in the process.

He smiles when he sees her standing there, then thinks "the bucket of bolts finally lost her mind", and walks casually toward her.

The closer he gets to the computer hologram, the more he realizes something wrong; she continues to stare straight at him and patiently waits for him to get closer.

Once they are face to face, Guzman smiles viciously and says "open up. I need to get some new clothes."

Julia brazenly replies "so you can wash all that blood off, and probably steal more of my lady Nitori's inventions? I don't think so."

Guzman frowns, making himself look fierce, grabs the hologram by the neck, pushes her against the wall, then shouts "open the damned doors loose wire, or I'll open them myself!"

Julia glares back and replies "it's too late. By the time you are back to your room, lady Nitori will know everything! You lost! If I were you, I'd prepare to receive just punishment soon."

Guzman loses his patience, but instead of trying to break the holographic body, he pulls out the small detonator from his right pocket and threatens to press the small red button on it.

Julia stares at it and says "that thing is wet. It won't work!"

Guzman smiles and says "oh, didn't you know? This was made by her."

Guzman raises the detonator and shows Julia its bottom, shocking her when she sees the letters in white "KN".

Guzman laughs, presses the button without hesitation, and just like that, several bombs explode inside Julia's main computer room.

Julia's hologram continues to glare at Guzman, and as she slowly breaks into pixels and disappears completely, she manages to say "this isn't over, you song of a-", then silence.

The gate doors loosen up, and using the ring's power, Guzman kicks the door open, completely breaking off the left door, then admires how all the robots now stand lifeless all around the now eerily lifeless resort.

He smiles and laughs, then says to himself "and now, it's time to get those things."

* * *

At the main office, Nitori gasps in surprise when she hears the explosions coming from Julia's room, though at first she thinks she imagining things, but when she sees so many of her robots malfunctioning and literally drying before her eyes, she feels something cold take her heart.

Before she can even ask what is happening, the door to her office bursts open, and in come at least six kappa, all looking angry at Nitori, and behind them in the corridors are even more kappa, a total of fifty of them.

The kappa in front, a male with blue hair and wearing a brown baseball cap, tosses several newspapers at Nitori and shouts "we want that man out of here, NOW!"

Without even glancing at the papers, Nitori shouts back "you get out of here before I kick you out!"

The kappa start to argue, but before it escalates to a riot, Ail and Rika rush inside, then Ail shows Nitori the hat and says "we know about Guzman! Where is he?"

Nitori gasps, then exclaims "Guzman is not a bad guy. Dammit Ail, I thought you were on my side!"

Rika steps up and says "he shot mister Ail, one of the autumn goddesses, children at the village, he tried to have his way with my lady Reimu, with miss Keine, with miss Sakuya and miss Byakuren! He went back to the mansion to try and claim it, harmed miss Remilia in a most inhumane way! Miss Nitori, I know it's hard, but you need to accept it! At least look at the papers!"

Nitori's eyes fill with tears as her voice crack and she angrily says "fine! But it's just to prove to you... that-"

Before she can finish, as she looks at the first paper, she immediately recognizes Guzman wearing her hat and pointing his gun at the school in the village.

She throws that paper away and picks the next and immediately sees how Guzman pushes a knife into Flandre's hand, then throws the paper away, just to see more photos of his misdeeds from the scattered pieces of paper.

She drops on her knees trembling, then whispers "grandpa."

She starts to cry and through her cracked voice, she says "g-grandpa will tell you! He's a nice man, right grandpa?"

The old hunched kappa with the long beard and brown shell stands brazenly in the center of the room, and as he grabs hold of his beard, he lowers his head, groans sadly, then says "I'm sorry my child. That man is not who you think he is."

Nitori gasps, but before she can say anything, the old kappa continues "I followed him everywhere. The beach, the pool, the racing tracks, to your little computer's room, and even managed to slip inside his own room. He only saw me as a turtle shell. Nitori, that man is vile. He harassed one of your guests, a most lovely youkai, and broke her spirit right before my very eyes. Nitori... I am grateful he still hasn't turned on you."

Nitori now kneels on the ground, supporting herself with her arms as she cries away, then Ail and Rika approach her, each lays a friendly hand on her shoulders, then Rika softly says "I'm sorry. I know you meant no ill, but please, you have to tell us where he is."

Ail, with an equally soft voice, adds "Nitori, you have to be strong now. Don't hide him, or we'll have to force you, and personally, I don't want to reach that point."

Nitori sobs and cries out loudly, then manages to say "I don't know where... where he is! He-he left yesterday and... and didn't..."

Unable to speak another word, Nitori breaks down to cry out her heavy heart.

She suddenly starts calling for Julia, but her computer fails to answer, making her cry out even louder.

Finally, the old kappa approaches her granddaughter, while the other kappa suddenly feel like dirt, though some still believe she's the one at wrong.

There is a loud explosion, shards of glass fly into the room, Ail, Rika and Nitori's grandfather are sent flying away toward the wall, and after noticing the large explosion behind them, Rika and Ail call out to Nitori.

When everything settles, Guzman has Nitori wrapped around his left arm and pointing his gun at her head, staring back at Ail and Rika and saying "try anything and she gets it!"

Nitori suddenly screams "Guzman no! You're not bad! Show them who you really are!"

Guzman places his lips next to Nitori's ear, whispers to her, then the little kappa start to cry and shout "why, why, why? Let me go!"

* * *

Guzman looks around the room and stares at all the kappa, then places his attention in Rika as he says "so, you thought you had me, huh? Well I'm on top, and what I say goes, or this little girl gets it. You of all people should know her life means NOTHING to me, isn't that right Ail? Eh?"

When he looks for Ail, he realizes he's gone, then suddenly hears a loud bark and feels a set of fangs sinking in the skin of his arm.

Ail has taken the shape of a large white wolf and bites down hard on Guzman's right arm, but the evil man lets go of Nitori, punches the wolf's face, then aims his gun at it.

Rika takes this chance and activates her blood limit and quicksilver and manages to tackle Guzman out the window.

Activating his ring while in mid-air, Guzman flips and manages to land on his feet, then watches as Ail, who has his blood limit activated and is back to normal, and Rika, that woman he hates so much, jump out the window after him, Rika holding her fire sword on her right hand, and Ail having a staff made of light on his right hand.

Inside the office, Nitori quickly recovers and gets up from the ground, runs to her grandfather while calling out to him, then kneels beside him.

The old kappa immediately tells her "go, I'll be just fine! A little explosion like that won't kill me!"

Through tears and a cracking voice, Nitori shouts "but grandpa, I can't!"

One of the long-haired female kappa approaches them and says "it's too dangerous, you old coot! Let those two take care of this!"

Nitori looks out the window, then says "no, this can't be happening!"

When she looks around her resort she notices the beach's water has been drained, and the room in which Guzman was staying looks like it's been burned from the inside.

She suddenly hears Guzman's voice, remembering what he asked her to do shortly after returning so badly beaten.

In her mind, he says_ "I just need those explosives so I can... help you remodel here. You see, we could blow up some rocks here and there, make some extra room, you know, for expanding." _

She hears herself as she replies_ "I don't know. I mean, digging is one thing, but blowing things up?"_

Guzman quickly chuckles, then replies_ "c'mon, it's me, your friend! What could go wrong?"_

Snapping out of her thoughts, Nitori realizes her face is full of tears and her heart is racing, and slowly, her sadness is turning into rage.

Without thinking about it, she jumps out the window to help Ail and Rika.

Meanwhile, just below the office's window, Ail uses himself as a shield to prevent Guzman's magic bullets to touch Rika, infuriating Guzman.

The evil man growls, then says "you're pissing me off, you dog!", then activates the dark magic in the gun.

Ail starts to scream as the old bullet wounds start to burn him again, and now the magical bullet wounds seem to be affecting him as well, burning his chest and left arm as though he's being hit twenty times over.

Rika takes a step ahead of Ail, then kicks him back, far away from the spell's reach as she says "thanks mister Ail, but you'll have to sit this one out again!"

Even hearing the child's voice in his head after looking at Rika, Guzman keeps control of himself thanks to the new hat, and moves quickly to take out Rika, aiming to strike her with his gun, but the shrine maid proves to be too good, and blocks his gun with the hilt of her sword, then kicks his face and sends him flying backward.

Ail recovers and rejoins Rika, then she says "if he does that again I'm kicking you again!"

Ail points forward and shouts "her he comes!"

Guzman forces Ail and Rika to separate after feigning to thrust the combat knife between them, then aims to stab Rika's neck, but Ail uses his staff of light to strike down his arm, then Rika takes the chance and strikes Guzman hard with the back of her sword, forcing him to use the momentum of her strike to back away.

At that moment, Nitori drops from the office and stands between Guzman, Ail and Rika, and with tears under her raging eyes, she shouts "don't you touch him!"

Rika and Ail both back away, their faces filed with surprised when they see the usually peaceful kappa looking like a fierce and hateful beast.

Nitori turns her head to stare at Guzman with those frightening eyes that seem to be turning red as she gets closer to him, then shouts "you! Why did you do this? Why me? Why~?"

Guzman slowly gets up, trying to keep a straight face while staring at Nitori's frightful eyes, but keeps quiet.

Quickly, more and more kappa, including Nitori's grandfather, who is being helped by two other kappa, all jump out the window and land behind Ail and Rika.

Fear takes Guzman, Nitori looks like she's about to kill him, and if she doesn't, the others will, as even he is incapable of fighting Ail, Rika and fifty kappa.

He suddenly frowns and lets a tear escape his left eye, then looks at Nitori with pained sadness, then says "N-Nitori... I'm sorry. I... I don't know what came over me. P-please, f-forgive me!"

He bows until he's kneeling on the ground and his forehead touches the floor, making Nitori gasp and recover he usual calm self, then repeats "I'm sorry."

Nitori gets closer, now staring at him with her usual compassionate eyes, then says "Guzman... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap like that. I just... got so confused and-"

Guzman gets up, grabs Nitori again and holds her tight, then strikes her hard with the hilt of his gun, leaving her semi conscious as he points the gun at her.

Looking fierce and holding Nitori as he backs away, he shouts "keep your distance, or I spill her brains on the ground!"

All the kappa, Rika and Ail glare at Guzman as he gets closer to the elevator of the right-side apartments, then kicks a black tube beside it, revealing another elevator, this one still powered up.

He enters the elevator, gently places Nitori on the floor there, takes out another detonator as he looks at Ail and Rika, smiles, then says "see you in hell", then presses the button on the detonator.

Various bombs start exploding all around them, and while Guzman escapes with Nitori, Rika gains two extra pair of wings of light and shouts "QUICKSILVER!"

A spell card spins in front of her for three seconds, then stops and she shouts "Ten'i nai Campeci Souhazan!"

The two extra pair of energy wings expand and seem to wrap everyone and everything, including the explosions, inside a field of light, and everyone and everything but Rika seem to slow down to a stop.

Not wasting any time, Rika starts grabbing as many of the kappa as she can at once, then takes them outside the resort and away from danger.

She repeats this again and again, the office and entrance slowly collapsing above their heads, until only Ail remains, and just before the entrance completely collapses, she manages to grab him and runs away from danger just in time, falling on the ground outside and rolling with him wrapped around her arms.

After getting far away enough, she deactivates her spell, and the explosions finish their destructive job.

The once proud and bright entrance to a place of respite has now become mere rubble on the ground, and all stare at the destruction with heavy hearts, and Ail keeps calling out for Nitori, his worry growing with every passing second.

* * *

Meanwhile, near the border of the Youkai Forest, Minoriko and Shizuha Aki walk to the same clearing where Guzman attacked Aya, talking and laughing amongst themselves.

Minoriko laughs, then looks at her sister and says "ah, looks like someone was here, and I see they didn't turn off their bonfire as they should."

Shizuha laughs and replies "probably someone who was... What the-"

Finally, the sisters realize the bit of snow on the ground is stained with blood.

As they look further away from the fire, they start seeing black feathers scattered around, accompanying the bloody mess on the snow.

Minoriko gasps and points even further ahead at some trees, then they see a large severed black wing.

Shizuha trembles and asks "s-s-s-sis? W-wha-what is all this?"

Minoriko bravely steps forward, stepping on the feathers and the blood, promptly accompanied by her trembling older sister, and when they look over a small mound of snow-covered rocks and bushes, they both gasp and scream as they run away.

Shizuha holds her stomach and runs away from her sister until she's out of sight, then Minoriko loudly says "n-ne-san, te-tengu-tengu! That's was the tengu!"

The goddess of plenty can hear her sister throwing up somewhere near, and after she returns from hiding, cleaning her mouth with her right sleeve, Minoriko shouts "we need to tell someone!"

Shizuha almost throws up again, but manages to hold it in and say "Hakurei! L-let's get the Hakurei!"

Minoriko bravely says "sis, you go get her and I'll stand guard here! This was that Guzman guy, I just know it!"

Hearing his name brings a fire into Shizuha's eyes, and recovering completely, she grabs her sister's shoulders and says "if that monster comes this way you'll have no way to defend yourself! There are still some leaves I can use around here for defense! Sis, go get Reimu! I'll stay here!"

Minoriko rapidly exclaims "but nee-san, you aren't feeling well!"

Shizuha turns Minoriko to the east and says "we are gods! Minoriko, I can take it! Just hurry up!"

Minoriko turns her head and can see the determination in her sister's eyes, so she simply nods and quickly flies away, shouting "I'll come back as soon as I can!"

Shizuha watches as Minoriko leaves with haste, then looks back to where Aya is.

Again she feels as though she's going to throw up, but she steels herself, then nervously says "d-don't worry miss tengu! The Hakurei Maiden will get here! J-just... just hold on!"

Aya manages to moan, hidden behind a mound of snow, her blood staining everything around her, and close to her body are pieces of her own hair lying around.

Shizuha sighs to calm her nerves, then says "just focus on recovering! The damage is bad, but someone like you should be able to recover... right?"

Instead of her voice, there is a disturbing gurgle, and Shizuha panics and rushes to Aya, even though getting closer is making her face turn green as she looks at the destroyed body of the proud tengu reporter.

She tries her best to look at Aya's face hidden behind the snow mounds, but Shizuha can't fake the sick feeling that's claiming her, yet, even looking like that, she manages to smile, a tear escapes her right eye, then she sniffles and says "d-don't worry. I won't let him touch you again."

* * *

Meanwhile, under what used to be the Kappa-pa Resort, the secret elevator doors open, and Guzman carries Nitori outside of it, places her on the ground in front of the large metallic doors with the warning signs on them so that she can look towards them with her semi-conscious blank eyes.

Guzman approaches the left door and taps it twice, revealing he password terminal, then presses the numbers 6548, then the symbol of the bird in mid-flight, and just like that, the doors open.

As this happens, Nitori manages to whisper "Guzman. Guzman... not... name."

He stares at the little kappa with surprise, the says "so you figured it out."

The doors finish opening up, revealing more inventions already finished and in display, yet Guzman pays more attention to the little kappa as she whispers "please... your... real... name. Please."

Guzman walks toward Nitori, bends his knees to get closer, then says "give it up. All I give is my family name, nothing more. Still, maybe someday you can figure out my given name, but it won't be by me, I can assure you of that."

He stands up and quickly makes his way toward the pair of black army boots that are hovering just above their platform, then smiles and says "thanks. with these, I can fly whenever I get tired of running."

Later, after switching boots, he reaches for a large black bag that was hidden just behind the magnet's platform, then smiles at Nitori, stands up, and begins his looting.

Guzman reflects on Nitori's blank stare as he takes one dangerous invention after another, and all Nitori can do is desperately think "no! Those weren't made for that! They're supposed to be for better lives! Please, please Guzman, stop this!"

As he browses around for anything useful to him, he comes across the metallic-looking backpack that seems to turn invisible, depending from where you look at it, shakes his head, then says "already got two bags. Don't need another."

After filling the bag with the inventions he wanted, he zips the bag to a close, opens a front pocket, and reveals another large bag, though there is nothing else in the room he might want, except for one last thing.

First, he looks toward the tube where the red and blue rings were, and the updated sign that reads "Enhances Physicality, Negates Space-Time Distortion, Speeds Healing Without Side-Effects."

He notices the blue ring is missing, then says "pity. And here I was thinking what two of these rings would do for me. Ah well, this little red ring has been a blessing, so I won't complain."

After saying that, he turns his attention toward the compact bazooka-looking weapon on the tube to the right, smiles viciously, then read "Caution: 10x the power of one Master Spark."

He turns his monstrous face to look at Nitori, smiles, then says "you couldn't lower the output, but you managed to stabilize it, huh? That's excellent. This will be perfect for taking out that demonic woman with angel feathers."

Guzman slides the tube upward and reaches for the Rainbow Gun, and all Nitori can do is cry as she thinks "no, Guzman, no! That's too dangerous! Please, put it down! You don't know the damage it can do! STOP!"

Guzman zips the second bag with the Rainbow Gun to a close, straightens up with one bag on each shoulder, then smiles and shows Nitori a grey plastic-looking rectangle that looks as though has been cut already.

She continues to cry as her eyes slowly force themselves to close, but she can hear as Guzman gets closer to her, gets behind her, then says "there's more than one way to leave this room... Yup, I better use that exit. The reserve power on the elevator is gone. Oh well, thanks for everything, my friend. I'll see you around."

Nitori can hear as his steps get fainter, then he suddenly grunts, and the sound of something paper-like braking reaches her just before she completely loses her consciousness.

* * *

Outside, at the clearing in the forest's edge, Shizuha has grown accustomed to the horrific site, and has now wrapped Aya in a grey blanket she got from her house, leaving only her left eye and left wing, which has been broken in several points, visible to her.

She has also restarted the bonfire and managed to place the tengu close, saying with a smile "there. This should keep you warm until help arrives."

She hears the crunching of snow as it is stepped on and immediately takes a defensive stance, raising her arms and causing the few leaves on the ground to lift up, turn as sharp as blades, then makes them spin around Aya and herself.

The wet figure of Guzman comes walking from the river, carrying two large black bags, and quickly laying eyes on Shizuha and the fallen tengu.

He stops and smiles, aggravating Shizuha to the point of having her stare back at him with hatred, then says "heh, so she's still alive. I thought she was a boy at first, but damn, to get so close to me take all those photos without my notice, I tell you."

Shizuha threateningly shouts "you stay the hell away!"

Guzman scoffs, then says "I stabbed her bare heart fifty... maybe sixty times. If she survives that, tell her I send my love", then winks.

Shizuha can't take much more and sends the blade-like leaves straight at the man, who takes the mirror cloak, activates it, then manages to bounce most of the leaves back, getting cut a few times on the face, yet not even flinching.

Shizuha screams with rage, runs straight at him, then kicks him so hard, she sends him flying above the trees, where he stops in mid-flight.

He salutes Shizuha form the air, then says "I don't have time to be playing with you. I need to prepare now. You take care little goddess. Be sure that after I'm done, I'm coming after you!", and using his new boots and his ring, he flies away from the forest quite fast, covering himself up with the mirror cloak and disappearing from sight.

Shizuha growls, then looks at Aya and says "this is bad! Sis better hurry up!", then watches with curiosity as a crow now rests next to the tengu, cawing softly and nipping Aya's cheek.

Meanwhile, in front of what used to be the Kappa-pa resort, Ail, Rika, and all the other kappa manage to make an opening into the resort, and the second they are in, they call for Nitori, desperately looking for any sign of her.

The resort is almost completely gone.

The right-side apartments are completely destroyed, half of the left-side apartments is gone, the pool, though still filled with water, is full of dust and pieces of rock, and the holographic sky is but a memory, now replaced by the reality of a bleak underground cave.

The sight pains Ail's heart, making him shed tears from his rage-filled eyes.

Rika places a hand on his left shoulder, then says "we have to go to the shrine! We tell everything to miss Reimu, and bring her here!"

Ail turns his head to Rika, sniffles, then nods and says "please, let's look for her a little longer! I owe her that much at least!"

Rika can see fear and sadness in his glassy eyes, so she nods, then says "she'll be alright, so don't you worry about her."

Ail manages a weak smile, then nods and starts opening gaps to all the places in the resort he can think of.

* * *

A few moments later, Nitori wakes up inside her large storage room, feeling as though she is waking up from a long and terrible nightmare.

After rubbing her eyes and moaning, she realizes her cheeks are still wet with her own tears, and as she looks around herself, she sinks into a feeling of great despair when she realizes she wasn't dreaming, that the horrible experience she went through wasn't a nightmare, but reality.

The few remaining lights in the room reveal to her the many empty pedestals of all her latest and most advanced creations.

Unable to contain it, she breaks down and cries out loud, cursing in her mind he day she met Guzman, at the same time, she feels it's both her fault, and not her fault.

She bangs her head once against the cold metallic floor and shouts "my friend!"

She lifts her head and lets herself drop again, though landing softer this time, and after her forehead touches the floor she softly says "not friend."

There's a whirring sound in the room and Nitori quickly thinks her so-called friend left her something that will kill her, but instead of reacting to defend herself, she decides to stay just as she is, whispering "I deserve it."

The whirring sound gets closer and closer, then stops.

Nitori waits for a little longer, but when she realizes nothing is happening, she looks up and sees Julia's old body standing right in front of her.

She sniffles and wipes her eyes with the back of her left sleeve, then asks "Ju-Julia? Julia, is that you?"

The monitor turns on, and in it is the old image of Julia, a pixilated green face without a speck of emotion.

Before Nitori speaks again, Julia says "this is a recording for my lady Nitori. I'm afraid I was too slow and couldn't get the proof I needed to save you in time. I decided to record my last thoughts in this body, along with a message for you, my lady."

Nitori spring to her feet and amongst tears and through a cracked voice, she shouts "no! Julia, what happened to you? Julia, I'm sorry, I should have listened!"

As if not even hearing Nitori, Julia continues "I have hidden the other ring as it is the only way to neutralize its twin. Please take it..."

A small compartment opens on the monitor's right, and on it is the blue ring, the twin of Guzman's own.

Nitori hesitates as she picks it up, and the moment she does, Julia continues "I suspect he left the silver backpack behind... How foolish, but I did take the liberty of taking its tag away, so to him, it's just a simple silver backpack. Now, lady Nitori, I beg of you, stop that crazed human, he is not well. In his mind, the world burns to ashes, the waters are poison, the air he breathes brings him closer to death; lady Nitori, I'm afraid any good in him is locked deep inside, and he's not letting it out."

Nitori cries as the strikes the monitor with her little fists and shouts "no, Julia! Come back! Please, I need your help! You know I can't build these things without you!"

Again, as emotionless as ever, and as if not hearing Nitori at all, she says "my lady, know this, he will not deliberately harm you... yet. You should take this to yours, and everyone's advantage. Miss Rika and mister Ail are in greater danger than they realize. Now, the backpack only needs a slight adjustment you should be able to work on without me. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help, but I'm afraid he already destroyed half of my... a-dy... must no-... exit thro-..."

Julia's face start disappearing, turning to static and snow on the screen more repeatedly.

Nitori screams Julia's name over and over, striking the monitor hard, her heart feeling heavier than lead, her whole body losing strength, then Julia's image stabilizes.

Nitori looks at the monitor with hope filling what little it can in her heart, then Julia says "I know I'm just a machine, but please, remember me fondly, my lady..."

With those words, the image of Julia breaks a smile, then the monitor turns black and the robot dies down.

Witnessing this, sadness and anger overwhelm the little kappa; she grabs her own backpack and throws it away with all her might, empties her pockets and throws all the wrenches, hammers, bolts and screws all over the room, crying and screaming curses, then stops and drops on her knees.

She sobs as she struggles to keep herself from falling on the floor, then, with that heavy heart, she grabs a nearby wrench and slowly crawls toward the blue ring, which coincidentally fell next to the silver backpack's pedestal.

The remaining lights all die out and the room turns pitch black, but then two emergency light bulbs dimly illuminate the large room, yet Nitori is nowhere in sight, having taken the silver backpack with her.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Youkai Forest's edge, Shizuha paces impatiently around Aya, then says "jeez, she should be at the shrine right about now. I just wish she could move faster... right miss?"

There is no reply of any kind from Aya, yet the crow beside her caws with despair and flies away, which estranges Shizuha, so she gets closer to inspect the tengu, and quickly realizes her skin is turning blue.

She gasps with despair and shouts "no, wait! You need to hold on! Come on, sis is gonna bring help!"

That very moment, Ail and Rika spring right out of one of his gaps, then Ail exclaims "not here! Let's go back!", but Shizuha spots them in time and shouts "HELP! She's dying!"

Ail and Rika instinctively rush toward Shizuha, Rika excitedly asking "who is dying?"

Shizuha points at the wrapped tengu, and both Ail and Rika gasp. Ail rapidly asks "isn't she a youkai?"

Shizuha replies "that man, he came! He said he struck her bare heart fifty or sixty time, and he struck the side of her head with something sharp too and... and."

Ail bravely steps forward and unwraps Aya, only to toss the wraps on her again after placing his hand on his mouth while he and Rika both scream at the sight.

Ail activates his Yozoragan mode, places his wings on the wrapped tengu, helping her to breathe again, opens a gap to the shrine, then shouts "Shizuha, go inside, NOW! Rika, heal!"

Rika is already placing her glowing mint-green healing hands near Aya's bloodied wrap and says "already on it!"

Shizuha hesitates for a second, then quickly hops inside Ail's gap, just before it closes up.

Right after his gap closes, Ail can feel his energy failing him, and that's when another gap opens up below them, going straight to the Hakurei shrine, and as they fall, Ail and Rika hold on to the wrapped Tengu.

Meanwhile, at the Hakurei Shrine, just before Ail opens his gap, Minoriko reaches the shrine and flies straight inside, shouting "maiden~! Hakurei~! I need help!"

Reimu, Mima, Hatate and Remilia are in the living room, while Sakuya is in the kitchen, preparing lunch for everyone at her mistress' request.

Marisa and Tenshi are out at the back of the shrine, trying to sneak into the storage house, hoping to borrow some magic scrolls or embarrassing records of Reimu, and Suzaku is out in front with Suika on the donation box, watching as a few startled villagers leave after a very quick prayer.

Inside the shrine, surprised eyes all lay on Minoriko as she tries to speak, saying "Reimu... Hakurei... tengu... blood... feathers... eeee~!"

Reimu stands up and furiously asks "CALM DOWN! Now, what do you need to tell me again?"

Minoriko takes a deep breath, then Ail's gap opens up just beside her, and after some time Shizuha springs right out of the gap, shouting "that tengu reporter is dying!"

Now Hatate joins Reimu by springing up on her feet, then shouts "stop making fun of the tengu!"

At the back of the shrine, Ail, Rika and Aya fall softly to the ground, and just as they touch the stone path, both Ail and Rika expel their breaths and deactivate their blood limits.

After getting startled by their sudden appearance, Marisa and Tenshi forget about the storage house and approach them, and with a grin on her face, Marisa asks "returning from your romantic getaway already, Ail-kun?"

Marisa's and Tenshi's face both change, the fright in their eyes is undeniable, then Marisa softly asks "w-whoa, Ail, Rika, what's the matter?"

The girls notice Ail and Rika both look pale, exhausted and desperate, and sounding exhausted, Ail manages to say "please... Reimu! Get Reimu!", then Rika adds "we used up... all our energy and she's still..."

A gust of wind blows strongly and blows open the bloodied wrappings around Aya, and when Marisa lays her eyes on her, her face turns ghostly white as she places her hands over her mouth to cover the loud yelp she lets out.

Tenshi opens her eyes wide and stares with fright, then whispers "who... what could have done that to a tengu?"

Reimu and Hatate quickly arrive to the scene, then Reimu screams as she and Hatate stare at Aya's body.

Hatate's face turns green at the sight, then suddenly flies away as fast as she can.

Marisa shouts "hey, come back you little-!", but Reimu interrupts Marisa, and sternly and hurriedly says "let her! She has to go! Mima~!"

Mima peeks her head through the shrine's wall, then Reimu shouts "get the candles! Marisa!"

Marisa stands in attention, then Reimu hurriedly says "get the amulets with the gold-", to which Marisa rapidly nods and says "on it!", then darts straight into the shrine.

* * *

Reimu rapidly pushes Rika and Ail away from Aya, wraps her body again, then takes out several needles from her pocket, rips off the seals on them, then chants in an ancient dialect as she places one by one around Aya's body.

Rika and Ail manage to stand up just as Mima arrives with six candles on wooden stands, then Reimu sits on the ground with her legs crossed, and just before beginning her prayer, she says "Ail, Rika, Mima, place the candles around us and light two, each."

As they start setting up the candles, Marisa runs to Reimu with a massive pack of amulets with golden borders and golden writings on them, but trips and almost falls on Aya, however, a strange force that emanates from Reimu's needles pushes the human away, and keeps the few scattered amulets floating all around Aya.

Before Marisa asks, Reimu, who seems to be in meditation, says "leave them there and place the rest to my right, then stand back."

By now, Mima, Rika and Ail are done setting up and lighting the candles, then back away.

Behind Reimu, on the shrine's porch, Remilia, Sakuya, Minoriko and Shizuha stare with wonderment and curiosity at Reimu and Aya, while on the roof, Suika and Suzaku look at Aya, Suika with a pained look in her eyes.

The crow that was with Aya before lands next to Suzaku, bows to the bird of vermillion, then caws.

Suzaku nods, raises her neck, points her beak at the sky, then starts to sing Rika's family song once again, though this time, it emanates a soothing feeling.

Rika suddenly feels some strength return to her and immediately joins Suzaku in song.

Without losing her concentration, Reimu begins to chant once again, and the amulets to her right start to fly away and set themselves around Reimu and Aya, and before long, they all start to glow dimly.

Everything seems futile, Aya doesn't react at all, and Reimu looks as though she's about to collapse, sweating as she reveals her gohei in her pocket and holds is horizontally on her hands, all while raising her voice along with Rika's and Suzaku's singing.

Ail manages to activate his Yozoragan mode once again, getting Remilia's full attention, then he spreads his wings open, making himself look like a dragon, then the ethereal wings seem to merge with the force field around Aya, but only lasts for a few seconds before he collapses.

Rika stops singing and drops on her knees, breathing heavily while holding her chest, then Mima approaches her and whispers "you did good kid. Now let Reimu handle the rest."

Ail raises his head to look at Aya, then remembers the day he met her, how he raced her to the Youkai Mountain, took her camera without her notice, then how she tried to kill him under mistaken orders and how she laughed when he first got turned into a small dog-like creature.

He returns from his thoughts and finds himself raising his left hand to the tengu, then says "don't... you dare... die, you idiot!"

Reimu now clenches her eyes and bares her gritted teeth, looking as though she going through great pain as she continues to meditate, then she suddenly screams as her eyes start glowing with warm light.

Suzaku stops singing, the crow flies toward Aya and lets a single feather drop on her head, then all the amulets and needles start glowing gold.

Aya's body suddenly regains its color, the tengu gasps for air and raises her hands, tries to scream out loud, then stops and slowly falls into a deep sleep.

The golden glows slowly dim down, Reimu slowly relaxes, then all the amulets and needles burn down into a white ash that gets inside Aya through her nose and open mouth, and just like that, it all ends.

Reimu opens her exhausted eyes to look at Aya, notices she's breathing normally, smiles, then says "she's alright...", then falls to the ground, causing panic amongst her friends, including Ail and Rika, who manage to get back up on their feet, regardless of their own exhaustion.

* * *

Somewhere at the Youkai Forest, down by the river bank, at noon, Nitori pockets her wrench and straps on the metallic backpack.

Almost immediately, it makes her looks translucent, but after squeezing the straps, Nitori gets back to normal, though she wishes she wasn't even alive.

Her tears refuse to stop, even though that by now, all she's feeling is overwhelming rage.

She looks into the water, hoping to see a reflection, but the water is to restless.

From behind her, Hina says "it's because of that tengu's blood. The waters have been restless since."

Nitori turns around and looks at Hina's skirt, making Hina gasp, bow and say "I'm sorry, I didn't-"

Nitori raises her hand and hides her hateful eyes under the brim of her hat, and in a gruff and angry voice, she asks "what did he do?"

Hina hesitates to answer, so Nitori raises her voice and asks again "what the **hell** did he do?"

Hina gasps, looks to the river to her right, then says "I-I'm sorry, but I'm not sure."

Nitori sighs, then says "no, I'm the one who's sorry!", then walks past Hina, headed toward an unknown destination.

Hina turns around and loudly says "you can't do it like this. Let me take that from you. Should make it easier for you."

Nitori stops for a moment, then says "nah. Let me keep this pain for a little while longer."

Hina asks "won't it be dangerous? Do you really think you can handle it?"

Nitori smiles, a tear rolls down the left side of her face, then she says "I'm actually beginning to like it", then walks away, vanishing from sight almost immediately.

Hina stares toward the spot where Nitori had stopped, then whispers "that's what I was afraid of."

Meanwhile, at the Forest of Magic, Guzman reveals himself after landing just in front of Marisa's house.

He observes the entire house and notices the vines that reach to the roof, the dirty windows and dirty door, then smiles and says "well I'll be. I think I can use this place for a while."

He easily enters through the unlocked front door and is immediately overwhelmed by the cluttered items lying all over the house, some seemingly useless.

He looks around and notices the mess goes up to the next floor, then looks at the basement and notices even more items scattered all over the ground, then takes a look at the kitchen, and although it's messy, it has the least concentration of items.

Guzman closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, drops his bags on the ground, then smiles and exclaims "yup! Just like home!"

* * *

Meanwhile at the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu drinks some tea, looking exhausted as she slowly lifts her cup and places it on her lips.

Rika tries to help her, but Reimu gently pushes her away, drinks the tea in her mouth, then says "it's alright. I'll be fine. Ail, how is Aya?"

Ail sighs, then says "well, the right half of her face is reforming, and her chest is finally sealed up. Her wings still aren't growing back though, and her left leg is starting to recover some muscle. Jeez, to think her right wing would break off after the healing."

Suzaku flies on to Rika's shoulder as the shrine maid walks closer to the tengu, then asks "this man, miss Rika, what sort of monster is he?"

Rika replies "he's a vile creature that shouldn't even be considered human. To do this to a youkai, a tengu, to anyone! He disgusts me."

Remilia looks at her own small wing to her left, then, sounding ashamed, she says "so... we were lucky after all. If he had done something like this to you, Sakuya..."

Sakuya adds "or Koakuma, or even miss Patchouli. Why did he-?"

Aggravated by the conversation, Ail loudly says "I warned you all about this bastard, and still to this day, you all underestimate him!"

Remilia takes offense to Ail's tone of voice, but Reimu stops her from saying anything about it when she says "you're right. Marisa, Kyo, Sakuya, Maribel, Renko... and me. We are humans and instinctively take better care of ourselves. The others are youkai. Wounds that are mortal to humans are nothing to them, so they feel they don't have to protect themselves as much."

Remilia lowers her head, thinking about what Reimu just said, and as she thinks, Reimu continues "Hatate is going to inform lord Tenma about this, and she's going to write the article, I'm sure. Still, we should do our best to spread the word amongst the youkai, that there is a human capable of killing them, and obviously willing to do so. I hope Tenshi keeps her word and tells the angels about this."

There is silence amongst everyone in the shrine again, and even the two young goddesses of autumn can feel fear coursing through their hearts.

Changing the subject, Remilia approaches Ail, then humbly asks "um, Anilan, could... um, could you do me a... a favor?"

Ail and Reimu both looks surprised at Remilia, while Rika looks confused at their expressions, then Remilia blushes as she says "um, you see, Flan was cut by a silver knife too, and that's kind of our weakness, and I was wondering if you, I mean, since you healed me already, um... could you come heal my sister too?"

Ail looks as surprised as Reimu, and stares at Remilia for a little longer, enjoying her blushing face, then pats her head as though patting a child, then says "sure. Just give me one night's rest. I don't think I'll be able to activate my blood limit at the moment. I used too much energy on miss Aya already."

Rika chuckles and says "we overdid it, didn't we mister Ail."

Ail looks to Rika with a goofy smile, nods, and says "yeah, I guess we did."

Reimu sighs, then says "Rika, you will go with Ail to the mansion. Assist him with anything you can, then return here. After that, return to your duties until I return."

Everyone's attention turn to Reimu as Rika asks "my lady, are you going somewhere?"

Reimu nods, then Marisa answers for her, asking "the Giant Toad's Pond?"

Reimu nods to Marisa, then Rika quickly asks "Giant Toad's Pond? What's that?"

Reimu quickly replies "doing this left me literally powerless. I need to go there to restore my divine powers before doing anything else."

The shrine grows silent once again, Mima and Suika, both whom are right behind Reimu, stare at the shrine maiden with saddened eyes.

Marisa suddenly breaks the silence and says "look, it's starting to get late, so I'm heading home."

Reimu throws her friend a terrified look, to which Marisa waves her hand at, smiles, then says "if I even **think** he's near, I'm turning around and coming back, just stop looking at me like that."

Reimu sighs, then nods and says "I guess I'm just a little shaken after-"

Ail interrupts Reimu to finish for her, saying "after this horrible incident. Yes, I'm a bit worried about Sanae and Buou too. I'm headed back to the Moriya Shrine. Everyone... stay safe."

Reimu watches as everyone but the Aki sisters take their leave, then sternly says "if you have to confront him, don't give him any chances. One slip-up, and it could mean your end."

* * *

Later that night, Marisa arrives to her home, landing right in front of the door while saying to herself "gee, that Reimu! Using all her power like that, but damn, Aya got it bad, ze."

She opens the door and sighs as she enters her house, then says "well, no matter. Once she's back in good health, we'll-"

Marisa quickly perceives the presence of something in her house, pulls her Hakkero from under her hat, grabs her broom tight on her left hand, and slowly goes up the stairs, calling "if there's someone up there, you better speak up now, or take on the consequences of your actions."

There is no reply, but there's the sound of something moving around the next floor.

Marisa gulps and rushes up the stairs, ready to shoot her Master Spark at anything that might be there, however, when she reaches the top of the stairs, there's nothing, except for her many cluttered items in small mountains across the small hall.

She goes further inside after noticing a light in her room at the attic, then she growls and says to herself "dammit Alice, this is no time for games."

There is a loud thud from behind, so Marisa instinctively jumps and rolls away from a rapid swinging object into the hallway, and when she stands and looks back, her fears are realized when she gazes upon the vicious smile of the vile Guzman.

He raises his gun on his right hand, retracts his left hand to reveal the combat knife, then smiles and says "whoops. I missed. Let me try again."

Marisa aims her Hakkero at Guzman and rapidly shouts "Love Colored, Master **SPARK~!**", and forces Guzman to take a dive for dear life.

While he's on the ground, Marisa manages to jump on her broom just in time and shouts "Stardust Reverie!", then forces him to take another dive as she flies out the hole on the second floor wall made by her own beam, leaving a trail of stars behind herself.

Terrorized, Marisa heads straight back to the shrine with haste, rapidly saying "must go to Alice! Need help from Reimu! What the hell am I saying? Where the hell am I going?"

As she zigzags in the air, Guzman calmly walks out of the house with his black bags, then smiles and says "so, I hit someone important after all. Heh, who would have thought that reporter had friends. Go figure. Now, I'll need to hurry if I want to make good time. Need to be ready for that maiden, heh-he~!"

Guzman wraps himself with the mirror cloak and flies straight toward the Youkai Mountain to prepare for Reimu.

Meanwhile, somewhere near the Misty Lake, Nitori takes some of the icy water into a large container, her tears still flowing down her hateful eyes, and as she looks at the murky reflection on the still waters, she scowls and shouts "stop crying you idiot!"

She tries to kick the water, but ends up splashing just a bit to the air and falling on her back to the ground herself.

Looking up at the winter sky with her teary eyes, she says to herself "Julia, my resort... my dreams. I trusted a human and lost all."

She sobs, clenches her teeth, manages to stand up, then walks away toward the east, and asks "should I do this? Will this bring all of that back?"

Without getting her answer, she continues on her way, still deciding on what course of action she should take.

* * *

At the Hakurei Shrine, Rika is just about to lock the front door and turn off the lights when Marisa crash-lands right behind the large gates and runs to her so fast, even Rika can't keep up.

Marisa embraces Rika and holds on tight, trembles quite violently, and just before Rika asks, she says "he's in my house! That THING is in my house! He wanted to kill me, but I didn't even say a word to the guy! He still wanted to kill me!"

Rika rapidly returns the embrace and comforts Marisa, patting the back of her head and says "it's alright, you're safe now. Calm down, calm down."

Reimu stumbles out to the living room and Mima phases through the back door, both wondering what's going on, and when Rika takes notice, she says "Guzman was in her house. Miss Reimu, he's targeting our friends, just as you feared."

Reimu leans against the paper wall to her right for support, then says "we need to warn Kyo and the others at the village."

Rika nods, and after calming Marisa down, the witch lets her go, walks toward Reimu while still a bit shaken, then Reimu points her to her own room, though Mima has other plans and takes Marisa away, saying "she's coming with me. It's sleepover, Mima-style."

Marisa looks frightened again and whimpers "help", but Reimu and Rika thinks she's just trying to be funny, unaware of the ominous smile on Mima's face.

Suika jumps down from the roof, smiles as if nothing was wrong with the world, points at herself with her thumb, then says "I'll go and tell them all."

Reimu quickly says "not so fast. Rika, send Suzaku with her. They can split up and spread my message faster."

Reimu struggles to point at a stack of papers on the kotatsu Rika thought were amulets, then realizes they really are amulets with a short note written on them.

Suzaku flies out of Rika's room, grabs half of the stack, then says "we'll be done in no time, Rika-sama!"

Suika runs inside, grabs the remaining stack of papers, then says "wait for me birdie!", then summons five of her miniature clones, then they all fly after Suzaku to the village.

Rika looks with worry toward them, but closes the door, locks it shut, then turns to Reimu with a worried face.

Reimu looks even more exhausted than before, but waves her arm to signal Rika that she's fine, then looks at Aya on the floor, her blood staining the futon she's on, then, and at the Aki sisters, who insisted on staying as guards.

Reimu sighs, then says "everyone... good night. Rest well. Don't worry though, he's not coming here. If that were his goal, he'd be here already."

Rika nods, rushes to help her mistress to her room, then says "my lady, I'll try to return as soon as I can from the mansion, so I can accompany you to the pond."

Reimu shakes her head, then says "you worry about yourself. I'll be fine."

There is a moment of silence, then Reimu suddenly adds "besides, you'll be taking care of, pfft, Ail-kun."

Reimu chuckles, and Rika, in complete disbelief, replies "miss Reimu, that's not nice!"

* * *

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Budou, Kyo and Guzman were created by Willie G.R.

Rika Onkamikami and Suzaku were created by Snapshot 2010

Rika's Spell Card:

Quicksilver Ten'i nai Campeci Souhazan (Complete Space Embrace Lunge), was created by Snapshot 2010

OCT 18 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Geez, I just realizes, I haven't been adding Guzman's name to the list of my created characters. Maybe that's how much I DON'T like him. One of my most despicable antagonists... Really, I don't like him one bit.**

**Now, I want to thank those that left their comments last time. Really, those gave me great joy, and receiving more and just one comment really uplifted my spirit. I even finishes this long chapter rather quickly. Ah, but dang, this chapter... so darned depressing. It's a good thing I took breaks while writing this. Anyway, thanks for reading, and do leave comments. They are very yummy for the heart.**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N:**

**I want to apologies for the terrible one-liners used on this chapter, though... the apology is vague. They weren't supposed to be taken so literal, bu I guess I totally failed at that *embarrassed smile*, so, in order for me to make clear the reasons for these "HORRIBLE one-liners", I have decided to end this sooner than I was hoping for. The main reason for this, is so that you can understand the reason for these lines, amongst other things. Again, though the lines aren't meant to be taken so literal, I apologize. No, I will not change them for the reasons mentioned just now.

* * *

**

Somewhere, during the dark night in Gensokyo, on the ground, with snow covering most of her body, Nitori lies on her side looking at her hands as she squeezes the snow between her fingers, remembering the events that occurred recently.

She remembers when at the office, Guzman whispers to her ear "it's the only way", while holding his gun to her head, just before Ail and Rika attacked him to try and save her.

She remembers when he presses the buttons on his detonator, causing several explosions to destroy her resort, all in an attempt to kill her friends and her kind.

She remembers, while in the elevator, when Guzman says to her "there's no turning back, Car- ...Nitori."

She suddenly remembers the images of Ail and Rika and rage swells up in her heart.

She grips the snow on her hand as tight as she can, even panting as she exerts more strength than she has, all to take her hatred toward her so-called friends and vent it, then stops and sighs.

She turns her eyes toward the night sky and says to herself "they were trying to help... and yet... Guzman, why did you do it? I gave you so much, and you destroy me. You wouldn't even give me your name."

Tears start flowing out the little kappa's eyes, she sobs, then she suddenly growls and shouts "it's all Ail and Rika's fault! They made you do it! They... But they saved me from you."

She slowly curls up and squeezes herself into a ball, then sobs loudly and says "Julia, I'm sorry! I should have listened! I set him lose with our creations... they were meant for good! They were never meant to harm others!"

Filling herself up with rage, Nitori springs to her feet, knocking off all the snow from herself and taking quick steps to nowhere.

When she realizes she doesn't have a destination, she stops and sobs, then asks herself "where can I find him now?"

From behind her, a girl asks "lost someone?"

Nitori gasps and turns around to stare daggers at Agava, who stands behind her with a mischievous look, however, when she looks at Nitori's face, her own expression changes to fear and actual concern.

Agava gulps, then asks "whoa, what's the matter? Um, really, if I can help in any way?"

Looking at the red, puffy and tired eyes of the kappa tugs something in Agava's own heart, to the point of causing her to feel some compassion.

Nitori's face suddenly changes to show only hatred, then she angrily says "no, you can't, so just keep the hell away from me!"

Agava gasps and backs away, then asks "is that so~?"

Rumia jumps out of nowhere, traps Agava in a headlock, bends her back as far back as she can, then exclaims "stop stealing my lines!"

Nitori glares at the girls, then turns away to continue down to nowhere. Agava and Rumia stop fighting, look with confusion at each other, then quickly run after Nitori, Agava shouting "wait! Wait for us!"

Nitori tries to speed up, but hunger and exhaustion get the best of her and falls on her knees on the snow.

Doing her best to keep her eyes hidden from the two girls, she angrily says "can't you take a damned hint? Get away from me! If you want a friend, go find some other idiot!"

Rumia looks surprised at Nitori, then asks "are you an idiot? Why can't we stay with you?"

Nitori snarls at Rumia, but before she shouts, Agava says "look, we're only trying to be good little children of the dark! C'mon, we can help you!"

Nitori snarls at Agava and angrily asks "what makes you think I need you help?"

Agava pokes Nitori's nose and says "well, you've been walking around in circles the whole night, you've been talking to yourself this whole time", Nitori's stomach suddenly grumbles, then Agava smiles and finishes "...and you are hungry."

Nitori blushes with embarrassment, but manages to look away and say "I-I'll be fine! I-I'm just... just..."

Agava and Rumia both present some vegetable and fruits to Nitori with smiles on their faces, then Nitori gives up with an annoyed groan and says "alright, whatever! You can stay!"

Agava and Rumia clap and cheer, somehow keeping the vegetable from falling to the ground, then Nitori says "but only until tomorrow! After that, I'm going on my own again!"

With smiles on their faces, both Agava and Rumia nod, then give Nitori a fruit first, which she devours with despair.

* * *

That morning, at the Hakurei Shrine, Rika tends to Aya, changing all her bloodied bandages for fresh, clean bandages, and after she finishes wrapping the right side of her face, she sits on her knees, swipes the sweat off her forehead, then smiles and says "there, all better."

Aya sighs with a whimper, then rapidly falls silent once more.

A tear escapes Rika's right eye, and soon after, she starts sobbing and is unable to stop.

Reimu sits behind her, looking exhausted, as if having been unable to sleep for days, yet she places a comforting right hand on Rika's shoulder and says "it's alright. She's not going to die. She just needs some rest."

Rika turns around with a smile on her face, even though she can't stop crying, then says "it's not just that. Miss Reimu, that man is single-handedly turning Gensokyo into a warzone. Things like **this** were commonly seen back home because of those horrid battles. Severed limbs, blood everywhere, ...death."

Reimu closes her eyes for a second, then says "I know. I saw it... in a dream."

Rika suddenly stands up, dries her tear with her right arm sleeve, bows to Reimu, then desperately says "please, my lady, get better soon! I need your help so we can stop this monster before he destroys this world! He's turning paradise into hell!"

From the left-side entrance, just outside the door, sounding casual and a bit annoyed, Ail says "if I were able to, I wouldn't be here. I'd be hunting that man like the monster that he is instead!"

Ail opens the door while Reimu smiles and says "and Ail-kun has arrived."

Ail doesn't respond and simply looks away, while Marisa comes walking from the back of the shrine with black bags under her sleepy eyes, her hair unkempt, and wearing only her white undershirt and her bloomers.

Rika blushes, feeling embarrassment for Marisa's current state, then says "miss Marisa, you're a girl, and you're in a shrine! You should show some decency!"

Marisa mumbles incoherently as she enters the shrine, drops on the floor right in front of Reimu and Rika with her face on the floor and her seat raised to the air, then says "Mima-sama... all night... need sleep", then falls into a deep sleep just as she is.

Reimu shrugs and signals Rika to get some clean sheets for Marisa, however, Ail is already covering her with one he pulls out of a small gap while saying "after we're done in the mansion, I'm going to look for Nitori. I'm sure she needs help."

Reimu slowly shakes her finger in the air and says "you will do no such thing. Ail, from what Rika told me, she's blaming you two for what happened."

Ail stammers for a moment, giving Reimu the signal she was hoping for, then she continues "I knew you noticed too. Going after her now will only push her away, and we don't want that. Let her come to us."

From the kitchen, after discarding the bloody bandages and cleaning her hands, Rika asks "is it really that simple?"

Reimu nods, then says "she's a kappa. They're not that complicated. She'll be coming to you when she's ready. Now, I'm heading to the pond now. I should make it there by midday."

Mima phases through the ceiling, Minoriko and Shizuha peek their heads through open door, while Suika jumps down from the roof, then Suika and Mima say at the same time "let us go with you!"

Reimu immediately says "no. Suika, I suspect the tengu will be coming here soon, and I need you to stay here with Minoriko and Shizuha. Let them know where Aya is, in case they want to take her home. Mima, that lake is full of divine powers. You wouldn't be able to stand being there for more than a minute."

The girls, and even Ail shoot worried stares toward the maiden, who smiles at them and says "I can still fly on my own, and I can take good care of myself. Don't worry, he won't even make it to the entrance. The toads won't allow him."

Ail opens a gap to the Scarlet Devil Mansion's gates and says "Reimu, if you would just let me open one for you, I'm sure-"

Reimu continues for him "I'm sure the spirits there will love it if I make it easier for myself out of selfish needs. No Ail, I have to do this as tradition demands it to be done."

Everyone sighs, then Reimu smiles and says "you worrywarts, stop worrying so much already! Everything will be fine."

Rika rushes to Reimu, wanting to give her mistress a hug, but she prevents herself from doing so, being in the presence of guests, so instead she bows and says "as soon as I am done, I'm going after you, my lady."

Reimu smiles, then loudly says "you'll follow my orders and work on your chores until I arrive, and don't think for once I haven't noticed Suzaku hiding on the roof. Take her with you, and have her meet the mansion's inhabitants. If anything does happen to me, you'll all know."

Suzaku flies out of hiding and lands on Rika's left shoulder, while everyone exchange worried glances amongst each other for Reimu.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the SDM's front gates, Meiling scratches the bandages over her head, wincing in pain every time she touches the reopened bullet wound.

She yelps and stands ready to attack when Ail's gap opens so suddenly to her left.

She waits for a few moment, but nothing happens, and in the end curiosity takes the best of her, so she decides to look inside.

Peeking her head inside she finds herself at the Hakurei Shrine, and quickly pushes herself through some more until half of her body is inside the gap.

Reimu notice Meiling is behind Ail and Rika, nods, then says "you may take them if you like. We're done here."

Meiling smiles, salutes Reimu, Ail and Rika by their shoulders, then happily says "thank you Reimu! Come on Ail, miss Rika. The mistress awaits!"

While Meiling grabs the surprised Ail and Rika by their shoulders, at the Mansion's gates, Sakuya notices Meiling's current position and just stares as she shakes her waist around, as thought taunting the chief maid.

A glint escapes Sakuya's left eye, and while staring with a neutral face, she pulls out a single knife from her pocket.

The chief maid takes aim, throws the knife, then Meiling pulls Ail and Rika through with all her might, tumbles backward, and falls to the cold ground with them beside her.

The knife flies just above Meiling, who exclaims "whoa, what's that?"

From the gap, Reimu shouts "hey! What the hell?"

Sakuya blinks twice, and with that same neutral face, she says "whoops, I missed", then disappears in an instant.

Meiling sits up and gently rubs her head, then looks around and asks "what is going on? Why are knives flying around today?"

Suzaku flies through the gap with a desperate look in her eyes while Reimu shouts "take THAT!", and just before the gap closes, Sakuya's knife flies back, headed straight to Meiling's forehead.

Meiling clenches her eyes shut and whimpers as she waits for the pain that she's soon to have to endure, yet nothing happens.

When she opens her eyes again, trembling as she looks around, she realizes Ail stopped the knife just before it hit her, holding it by the broad side of the blade with two fingers.

With a smile on his face, he shakes his right hand index finger in the air and says "not on my watch", then winks at the frightened youkai.

Meiling finally calms down, smiles, stands up, then exclaims "thanks. That would have really hurt!"

To her left, Rika sighs, then places a gentle mint-green glowing hand on Meiling's forehead, then says "there we go miss Meiling. This should help."

When Rika takes her hand away, Meiling pats her own forehead and notices the pain is gone, and suddenly jumps while squealing with glee on Rika, hugs her around the neck, then says "thank you so much! That's one handy ability miss Rika!"

Rika giggles, pats Meiling's head as though patting a young child, then says "I learned it to help other out, miss Meiling."

Meiling releases Rika and steps back with a bright smile on her face, then bows and points toward the mansion, saying "my lady is waiting for you."

Ail and Rika bow, Suzaku lands on Rika's shoulder, then Ail says "thank you. This won't take too long, hopefully."

Meiling smiles back, nods, then says "well go on, you know how miss Remilia gets when she's waiting for something!"

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu grabs the lunch basket made by Rika, and promptly heads outside.

Suika and Mima want nothing more than to stop her from going out on her own and Marisa is still sleeping, snoring loudly as she lies in the very same position she fell on.

Next to the sleeping witch, are Shizuha and Minoriko, both tending to Aya, feeling somewhat responsible for her, being the ones that found her in the first place.

Standing just outside the shrine, Reimu closes her eyes as she concentrates and prepares to fly, then Hatate lands to her right, successfully stopping the maiden, and giving Mima and Suika some much needed relief.

Reimu looks with surprise at Hatate, noticing the serious expression on her face, and asks "Hatate, you're here earlier than I expected. Are you taking her back?"

Hatate sighs, shakes her head, then says "Lord Tenma feels she's much safer here with you than anywhere else, and asked for your cooperation."

Reimu nods and says "alright then, she can stay. I'd be too worried about her if she wasn't here anyway, and so would those two gods, for some reason."

Hatate suddenly adds "he also asked that, even if you have to strap her down, do so. Just make sure she stays here and rests until she is fully recovered."

Reimu looks with suspicion toward the tengu, thinking about a lot of things to say or ask, but Hatate beats her and says "he fears for her. He fears she might want to go straight after that human, seeking revenge, or... she might be completely unhinged. Lord Tenma feels, and we all agree, that you might be the only one capable of reaching her when she comes back."

Reimu gulps, nods, then says "I understand. Tell Lord Tenma that I'll keep her safe."

Hatate nods to Reimu's statement, then the maiden readies to leave again, but Hatate stops her once again and worriedly asks "why are you leaving?"

Reimu stops concentrating, sighs, then says "I used almost all my power to save her. Now I need to go recover."

Hatate places her right hand on Reimu's left shoulder, then says "please return safely, for everyone's sake, and Aya's safety. Whether I like her or not, she's still one of us."

Reimu nods and stares into Hatate's eyes, then asks "is there something else?"

Hatate removes her hand from Reimu's shoulder and asks "where is Ail? Lord Tenma seeks an audience with him."

Reimu gasps, showing some fright, then Hatate finally smiles and says "it's nothing to be afraid of. It's just that... depending on what Ail tells us, and what he suggests, the tengu might help in the capture of this human, or take this matter into their own hands."

Reimu stares back at Hatate with a neutral expression, hiding the bit of fright swimming around inside her heart.

Meanwhile, halfway up the Youkai Mountain, Guzman brazenly walks out in the open, following a narrow road that seems to lead to a field of tall grass.

Having found a safe hiding place, he's no longer carrying the two black bags with him, ridding himself of any unnecessary burdens, as well as giving him peace of mind.

Guzman smiles when he lays eyes upon the tall grass at the end of the road and quickens his pace, then suddenly stops and looks slightly upward.

A giant toad twice the size of Guzman himself appears before him, followed promptly by countless more toads, all quite large, but none as large as the giant toad in front of the vile human.

Guzman smirks, scoffs, then says "move, you ugly piece of snot!"

The giant toad opens his mouth and lets out such a loud and powerful croak that it could be considered a roar, yet Guzman stands completely unfazed, and continues to smile.

The giant toad gets closer, looking threateningly at the human, but Guzman places his hand on his hat and pushes one of the maple leaves on the hatband and sends a powerful wave that seems to make the toads, and all the living creatures in the area, get dizzy and even fall to the ground.

Guzman laughs hard, then says "now, let's get everything ready for our dear shrine maiden!"

* * *

Down at the Scarlet Mansion's basement, Ail, Rika and Suzaku are being led down the corridor by Sakuya, who seems rather eager about reaching their destination, Flandre's room, and seems to be throwing worried glances at Ail over her shoulder.

They reach the door to the library, and Rika suddenly stops, allowing Suzaku to perch on her shoulder, and lowers her head to think.

Sakuya and Ail take notice and stop to turn around and look toward Rika.

The shrine maid bows and says "I'm sorry. Please, let's move on."

Ail smiles, looks at Sakuya, both nod, though Sakuya keeps her eyes fixed on Ail, then Ail turns to look at Rika again and says "it's alright. Go to Koakuma now and you can catch up later."

Rika rapidly shakes her head and says "my lady said I had to assist you, so I'm not leaving your side!"

Sakuya smiles after Rika shows her devotion and respect to her mistress, willing to follow her orders to perfection, regardless of discomforts or disagreements.

The mansion's chief maid turns around to continue on her way, then says "come on sir, she won't do it. She has to follow Reimu's orders."

Ail scratches his head as he looks to Rika and Suzaku with confusion, then shrugs and says "alright. I don't get it, but it seems important. We'll stop here on the way back."

Rika smiles and nods, then they continue on their way to the young mistress' room.

Reaching the door to Flandre's room, Sakuya quickly opens it and stands beside it, gesturing Ail and Rika to enter the room with a bow and a wave of her arms, though keeping her left hand close to the knives on her thigh strap.

Rika enters the room, and from inside, Remilia yelps and asks "hey, where's Ail?"

Flandre exclaims "uuu~, what a pretty birdie!"

Suzaku tweets, and Rika answers "oh... he was just behind me right now. Mister Ail, are you coming?"

From outside, Ail quickly replies "in a second", then looks at Sakuya with disappointment in his eyes, and says "I understand your unrest, but I'm a friend... Am I not?"

Shame quickly claims the chief maid and finds herself unable to lift her eyes up to look at Ail, but at least manages to take her hand away from her knives.

She gulps and sets her heart back in her chest, then says "p-please forgive me. I didn't meant to-"

Ail pats her head, giving Sakuya the will she needs to straighten up, then he smiles at her, though in pain, then says "I understand. Just... please remember that I am Anilan, not that vile man."

Sakuya turns her eyes to her right for a moment, then turns them back to Ail, smiles naturally, bows, then says "alright. Please forgive me."

Ail manages to smile and nod, then enters the room, leaving Sakuya to her thoughts.

Upon entering the room, Ail finds Suzaku flying in circles over Flandre's head, while Flandre giggles and waves her arms around, looking very amused.

Remilia sits on Flandre's bed with a disappointed look on her face, and Rika stands in the middle of the room, smiling at Flandre as she plays with Suzaku.

Ail waves his hand and smiles as he says "sorry about that everyone. Flanny, how are you?"

Flandre twitches at the sound of Ail's voice, but quickly calms down, frowns, angrily shakes her little left fist in the air and says "don't call me Flanny, fat big brother!"

Ail sweats and waves his hands in the air, as if trying to push the air back, then says "whoa, sorry Flandre. Um, I heard you got hurt, so I came to see you."

Flandre's expression completely changes as she gasps and smiles widely, then jumps on Ail and knocks him to the ground with a powerful hug-tackle.

Dazed, Ail coughs and says "gee, glad to see you're still strong."

Flandre giggles and says "big brother is silly."

Remilia clears her throat, getting everyone's attention, then Ail gently takes Flandre off of him, and places her on the floor, gets up on his feet, and activates his Yozoragan blood limit, causing Flandre to open her mouth wide and exclaim "wow, big brother! You look amazing!"

Ail flaps his ethereal dragon wings once, smiles at Flandre, then offers her his hand and says "let me see that hand of yours, Flan."

Though awestruck, Flandre manages to raise her bandaged right hand to Ail, and after she places her hand on Ail's the bandages slip off, revealing a large bloodied hole in her little palm.

Ail places his left wing over her arm, and after a quick light-green glow, Ail retracts his wing again, and as if nothing ever happened, Flandre's hand is completely healed and her wound sealed.

Suzaku telepathically exclaims to Rika "he must really like them if he's willing to sacrifice that much energy for their health."

Rika silently looks at her familiar, then nods.

Flandre explores her little hand, admiring it back and forth, unable to believe her wound, the wound that wouldn't leave, even after she slept, is gone.

Ail manages a weak smile as he says "there, you see? Good as new."

Again, Flandre jumps on him and knocks him to the floor, this time she hugs his neck and rubs her right cheek against his left cheek and says "Ail-nii~!"

Ail's face turns beet red and asks "A-Ail-nii?", Suzaku squawks in a manner that seems like she's laughing, Rika covers her smirk with her right hand while holding back her desire to giggle, and none but Sakuya, who's laughing at the door, notice how Remilia keeps her eyes fixed on Ail as she smiles and drools at the sight of his wings.

* * *

A few minutes later, Sakuya bows her head and smiles naturally as Ail, Rika and Suzaku exit young Flandre's room.

The chief maid looks inside the room toward her two mistresses, bows, then says "please excuse me while I escort our guests to the library, my lady."

Wiping the drool off her chin and jumping off Flandre's bed, Remilia signals Sakuya with her right hand to get closer as she says "I'm sure they can manage on their own. Sakuya, we would like to have a word."

Flandre crawls from underneath her bed, peeking her head to her sister's right, looks at Sakuya and says "ooh, Sakuya-san comes to get scolded!"

Outside, Sakuya looks at the guest with a defeated look, so Rika smiles at her and says "it's alright miss Sakuya. We understand", to help her calm down.

Ail, Rika and Suzaku bow at the chief maid, then head straight toward the library.

Ail takes the lead to hide the depressed look in his eyes, and hopes visiting Patchouli and Koakuma will help cheer him up.

Rika and Suzaku can feel something strange from Ail, but they decide to keep quiet about it and wait for him to speak if he needs to.

They reach the dual doors to the library, and recovering his goofy smile, Ail looks back at Rika and Suzaku and loudly says "I haven't visited in a while, so I'm kind of excited!"

Rika weakly chuckles, then says "I'm happy for you, mister Ail", and Suzaku tweets as Ail opens the door.

He steps inside and loudly calls "Patchouli~! Koakuma~! We came to vi- WAAH~!"

A blue beam comes rushing down from the ceiling and lands straight on Ail's head, giving him a powerful electric shock that leaves him paralyzed for a few seconds after it stops.

From the corridor just outside the door, Rika worriedly asks "mister Ail, are you alright?"

Ail shivers as he turns around to give Rika a thumbs up, but just after he smiles, Koakuma and Patchouli come flying from his left and right, and both strike him down to the ground with thick books.

As she strikes repeatedly, Koakuma shouts "it's the man alarm! HIT HIM HARD!", while Patchouli manages to say "teach him a lesson!", as she strikes Ail a third time, then starts coughing violently.

Suzaku enters the room squawking loudly, followed by Rika who desperately shouts "wait, wait, what are you doing? That's Ail!"

Patchouli drops on the ground to cough, while Koakuma stops and looks to the floor, then scream with surprise, and with a whimper, she says "oh my gosh, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry Ail!"

Patchouli manages to get up on her knees and weakly says "I wasn't expecting you to visit."

Koakuma helps Patchouli to her feet while angrily saying "I told you we should have been more specific about it Patchouli-sama!"

Suzaku lands on Ail's shoulder and flaps her wings as though trying to help him get up, and as he manages to get to his knees, he softly says "it's alright. Um, I need some air. Um, glad you're alright. See you again later!"

After saying that, he abruptly stands up and walks out the library so fast that Suzaku has trouble keeping on his shoulder, doing his best to hide his face.

Suzaku speaks to Rika telepathically, saying "don't worry, I'll stay with him", calming her master down.

* * *

Patchouli and Koakuma look curiously at the corridor, then Patchouli asks "was it something we said?"

Rika chuckles nervously, then says "he's just not feeling too well. Um, he actually came here for me, you see. I wanted to see you and miss Koakuma... and I wanted to give something to her, if it's alright with you, lady Patchouli."

Patchouli stare at Rika with her usual unfriendly expression while Koakuma stares with excitement, then Patchouli softly says "alright. I'll be reading my book then. Koakuma, please return to your duties once you're done here. Oh, and miss Rika, please call me Patchy next time."

Patchouli slowly flies away as Koakuma bows to her and says "yes miss Patchouli", while Rika giggles nervously.

Koakuma turns to face Rika, smiling and asking "and what would Rika onee-chan would like to present me with?"

As Koakuma bends slightly forward with a cute smile and placing her hands behind her back, Rika smiles back and flaps her wings involuntarily as she searches her right pocket for her Saboten Stock.

She takes the tiny box out of her pocket, pushes the button and activates it, and from inside it she takes out a chained necklace with a circular aquamarine jewel that has smaller a green triangular jewel hanging below the large one, with a simple metallic plate adorned with strange symbols between the two stones.

Koakuma gasps with amazement upon gazing at the necklace, then Rika smiles and says "this is a copy of the Necklace of Harmonia, miss Koakuma. I got so worried about you when they said that Guzman attacked you, so I made it for you."

Koakuma slowly lifts her hand to hold the jewel to get a closer look and gaze upon it some more.

Rika smiles brightly and hurries to place it around Koakuma's neck, saying "the aquamarine stone will give you great fortune, and will enhance your abilities in time of great need; and the green stone is called a Telegrad stone, it will allow you to summon the one who gave you this gift, so you may summon me if you are ever in need of help."

After placing the necklace around Koakuma's neck and gently arranging her long red hair so it rests over the chained necklace, Koakuma suddenly turns around and gives Rika a tight hug, kissing her left cheek while excitedly saying "thank you so much Rika onee-chan!"

Rika returns the hug as she softly says "I take care of my little sis. She worries me a lot when such bad things happen to her. I promise, if you ever need my help, you use that stone to summon me and I'll come to you aid."

Koakuma and Rika separate, then Koakuma bows with a smile and a tear that rolls down her left cheek as she says "thank you so much! I'm so glad you're my onee-chan, Rika onee-chan!"

Rika giggles, rubs Koakuma's head, then says "I better go now. I'm worried about mister Ail and miss Reimu. Please take care little sis, and please be a good girl!"

Rika waves as she hurriedly leaves, and after waving back, Koakuma closes the door, then smiles mischievously after hearing Patchouli call for her.

Rika runs all the way back outside the mansion, worried about Ail and the manner of his departure, as well as wanting to hurry to the shrine for news of her mistress, and as she runs out the front door, she exclaims "mister Ail, are you alright?"

After closing the door and getting a better look, she notices Ail stares sternly at her, and opens a gap to the Hakurei shrine.

To his left is Meiling, looking a bit worried while discretely pointing at him, and to his right is Hatate, who has a stern look on her face that equals that of Ail's.

Suzaku flies to Rika's shoulder as Ail, sounding listless, says "go. Apparently, I have an appointment with the tengu lord."

Rika looks back with concerned eyes and asks "will you be alright?"

Ail and Hatate slowly nod, then Hatate says "don't worry Rika-sis, he'll be alright."

Rika nods, and although she's worried about Ail, she enters the gap and heads back home to await for her mistress' return, seeing as the worry for her mistress takes priority for her.

* * *

Later, Halfway up the Youkai Mountain, Reimu walks down the path to the Giant Toad's Pond with her basket hanging on her right hand, looking quite satisfied after having eaten the lunch Rika had prepared for her.

She takes a deep breath, then says "ahh, that was delicious. Hmm, it's a little later than I anticipated, but at least I'm here."

Upon reaching the tall grass that hides the pond, the giant toad hops in front of the maiden and stares.

Reimu smiles and bows, as always, and the toad sands and stares at her.

Estranged by this, Reimu raises her head to look at the youkai, blinks twice, then whispers "eh? Is something wrong?"

The toad suddenly turns around and jumps over the tall grass, opening the path for the shrine maiden, as he has always done.

Reimu straightens up, faintly smiles, then says to herself "that was a little odd. Guess he must not be feeling well in this weather."

Behind the large grass is a beautiful pond with lotus leaves and flowers floating on its glistening crystalline waters, and around it are many beautiful old trees that, even though it's winter, still hold some green leaves on their branches.

Near the pond, behind the many trees, lies a small shrine where people tend to leave offerings, and that's where Reimu is heading to pray.

The shrine maiden places her basket on the ground as she kneels for a small prayer, and after clapping her hands together, she closes her eyes and remains silent.

As she offers her prayer, she thinks "something's odd. I haven't seen any of the fairies or the toads, and that toad youkai was acting weird."

Without her notice, Guzman's large frame gets closer to her, holding the combat knife on his left hand and readying himself to grab his gun with his right.

Reimu starts feeling dizzy and has to hold herself from falling, using her arms for support, and thinking it's her exhaustion, she chuckles and says to herself "guess I am more drained than I thought. Fine, time to..."

Reimu looks with suspicion to her right, then to her left, then traps herself inside a blue round barrier just as Guzman swings the combat knife, which was aimed at her neck.

Guzman yelps from the recoil after the knife crashes against the barrier, while Reimu yelps from the fright, and because of the force from the impact, the round barrier rolls away and toward the edge of the mountain, rolling over the shallow water and taking Reimu away to safety.

Reimu calms down when she realizes Guzman is trying, but failing to catch up to her, then notices he's now running even faster and gaining on her.

Desperate, Reimu looks around for any means to speed her escape, then realizes she's stopped moving.

Guzman laughs as he reaches her, then says "it's the first time I'm actually glad there are trees!"

When Reimu looks behind her, her barrier orb is stuck between two trees, and feeling dizzy and spent, she knows any attempts to escape will fail her, so she remains kneeling inside the safety of her barrier.

Guzman progresses to cackle, while Reimu thinks "this was unexpected! I'm just too tired! If I try to move, I'll break the barrier, but if I stay like this any longer..."

Guzman finishes laughing, swipes a tear from under his left eye with his right hand, then says "Julia was right after all! Forcing you to use your powers like that made you weak! Man, I was so lucky she also had the location of this place, else I'd have never been able get 'cha."

Reimu looks at Guzman, feeling slightly dizzier than before, then asks "the toads and fairies! What did you do to them?"

Guzman bends his knees so that he can look into Reimu's yes, taps his new hat twice with his finger, then says "this new hat comes equipped with more features. This time, instead of just a simple headache, I could control you, make you do whatever I want. Heck, you'd give me your body and you won't even be able to resist."

He watches as Reimu clenches her eyes and grits her teeth as though in great pain, then frowns and says "then again, maybe **you** can resist... but not for long."

He gets a bit closer to the barrier and raises the hat's brim, augmenting the signal emitting from his hat, then smiles and sinisterly whispers "it's only a matter of time. And don't worry, I won't desecrate your body. I just want to spill your blood so that demon maid of yours breaks."

Reimu moans when Guzman increases the hat's signal, feeling as though her head is being swirled around by a smooth spoon, though done so fast, it's making her nauseous.

While Guzman stares at her with a despicable smile, she rummages through her left sleeve and pulls out a purple amulet.

Guzman gasps and pulls out his gun, then shouts "what the hell are you doing? Gah, I better hurry this up!", and starts shooting his magic bullets, though doing nothing to Reimu's barrier.

The young maiden lifts the amulet above her head, and with a pained look in her eyes she manages to yelp "help!", and the amulets flies fast to the sky, leaving a purple beam behind it.

* * *

Meanwhile, high up the mountain, in a hidden area only few non-tengu have visited, Ail and Hatate make their way towards a colossal building that rests against the mountain at the end of a long, old and sturdy-looking bridge that creaks every time Ail takes a step.

The large building looks like a white castle with a large golden roof, and three towers, two the right, and one to the center left, each one supporting a large and round golden orb for a roof with many large windows.

All around them are houses set over all around the mountains and peaks, and the larger houses are set on flat and sturdy surfaces, against the mountains themselves.

To his disappointment, Ail is unable to behold the sight since Hatate has folded his eyes with a black cloth, and is leading him straight toward the largest building.

Ail groans and asks "why do I have to wear this? I thought I was invited."

Hatate angrily replies "hey, be thankful you're allowed into the Tengu Village! It's not every day outsiders get to set foot in here, much less one that comes from the world outside Gensokyo."

Ail growls inward, but remains silent, and out of some pity, Hatate sighs and more calmly says "look, even Aya would have to do this to you. It's like, the rules here, and there's nothing any of us can do about it. The only way you could be allowed to see, is if Lord Tenma and the elders deem you worthy. Not that it's going to happen."

Ail trips, but Hatate makes sure he stays on his feet, then he asks "well, how much longer?"

Hatate stops Ail, pauses for a moment, then says "we're here."

Ail can hear as some large doors are slowly being opened in front of him, and after they stop, Hatate gently pushes him forward, saying "come on. Lord Tenma is waiting."

Ail can hear their steps echoing all around them as soon as they enter the building, and is unable to see the beautiful marble statues of each of the tengu classes around him, but he is able to hear how doors continue to open before him, and close as soon as they are through.

For a while, there is only the sounds of their steps as they make their way further inside the building, then they suddenly stop, and Hatate says "don't be nervous. Just answer politely and we won't have to kill you."

Ail's heart starts beating faster as his anxiety rises, and with a low and sarcastic tone of voice, Ail replies "thanks. I'm much less nervous now."

Hatate quietly opens the door, and immediately Ail feels bombarded by the numerous voices coming from within.

Inside the hearing room with checkered red and black floors, tall stands to its left and right side, and a large stand with a podium in the far center of the room, are a large number of tengu arguing amongst themselves.

Some wear masks with really long noses, others have fierce faces, even though they laugh amongst themselves, others look like normal every-day humans, while others, like Momiji, who sits with a group of wolf tengu on the right stands, have animal-like features along with their human bodies, including, like her, animal tails and ears, or like Aya, bear a pair of black wings.

Hatate angrily sighs, then says "great, they made it public. Ail, once I let go, the hearing starts. From there you'll be on your own until it's done."

Anxiety now takes over Ail's entire being, making his limbs feel stiff, making it hard for him to move, even with Hatate pushing him.

After a short walk, Hatate releases Ail, then the room falls into silence, allowing Ail to hear his own heart as it threatens to break right out of his chest.

* * *

At the Giant Toad's Pond, Reimu remains kneeling inside her own barrier, while Guzman continues to shoot at it and swing the knife with all his might, making sparks fly with every swing.

As he attacks, he shouts "you bitch! I'll break this barrier and do the same to you as I did to that bird girl!"

Reimu opens her eyes and glares at Guzman; she would want nothing more than to take his neck with her own hands and wring it between them until she's satisfied, but she suddenly feels light-headed, all thanks to the signal being emitted by Guzman's hat.

The vile man sneers as he stops his attacks after noticing Reimu is weakening, and with a wicked smile on his face, he raises the brim of his hat to raise the level of the confusion wave, then says "good, you're giving in. Heh, at this rate, I'll kill you twice over before your friends can get here."

Reimu moans as though in pain, then manages to say "you bastard. Just you wait! I'll make you pay for what you did to Aya!"

Guzman chuckles as he stares at Reimu, bends his knees to look into her pained eyes, then whispers "better take those thoughts out of your mind little lady, or you'll never be able to rest in peace."

He smiles as he watches Reimu clench her eyes and grit her teeth as she fights back against the dizzying wave.

Meanwhile, at the Hakurei Shrine, Rika and Minoriko are changing the bandages on the right of Aya's face, which has recovered considerably.

Most of her skin has returned, her eye has been restored, and most of her hair has grown back to its original state and length.

Although she's making sure Aya is gently cared for, Rika can't help but continue to throw anxious glances outside the shrine, looking for any sign from Reimu.

She's not alone, as both Mima and Suika anxiously walk in and outside the shrine to wait for the maiden.

Shizuha suddenly enters the shrine, carrying a bucket of fresh water, and after setting the bucket on the ground, she looks up at the sky and says "hey, miss Rika, Suzaku is acting strange."

Rika raises her sight to look at the goddess, when Suzaku's voice echoes in her head, saying "master, come quick! Mom calls for us!"

Rika gasps and shouts "miss Reimu!", then springs on her feet and runs straight outside, waking Marisa and almost tackling Shizuha on her way out, then lifts off to the air.

Suika and Mima quickly chase after her and Suzaku, then Mima angrily says "I knew it! That stubborn maiden got into trouble!"

The girl's tension rise when they look toward the clouds above the Youkai Mountain, where large letters in purple write out "HELP ME".

Rika activates her Soraogan mode and shouts "It's him! We need to move faster!"

Suika looks sternly at Rika and shouts "we're all going as fast as we can, so unless you can break open a gap like Yukari, shut up and fly!"

Rika closes her eyes and summons her bright white wings, then suddenly starts flying faster.

Suzaku rapidly approaches Rika, starts glowing red, then says "get ready, Rika-sama!"

Rika looks confused toward Suzaku as the bird of vermillion lands on her back and becomes a beautiful red mantle that, like Okuu's mantle, gently sets itself on Rika's wings.

Before Rika asks what she is doing, a large gap opens up right in front of her, then closes up immediately after she enters it, leaving Suika and Mima staring at each other with surprised faces.

Back at the pond, Guzman stands up again, places the combat knife in its sheath, grabs his gun with both hands, and as the black spell card materializes and spins above it, he smiles at Reimu and says "well, I believe it's time, little lady. Say goodbye to the world of the living."

Reimu can only moan and whimper as she holds her head, then Guzman takes a sudden deep breath and shouts "Dark Sign, Rapid Fire!"

By holding the gun with both hands, he is able to keep it steady as the black bullets fly out of the barrel in rapid succession and straight to Reimu's barrier, striking it so hard and so repeatedly, Reimu starts to whimper louder as she tries her best to keep her barrier from breaking.

Guzman laughs when the barrier flickers for a second, then shouts "yes, YES, that's it! Just a little more!"

Reimu yelps loudly and clenches her eyes as she bends her body and uses her left hand as support so as not to fall down, then desperately thinks "dammit, this can't be! I'm losing it."

The bullets continue their assault without pause, and all Reimu can do is yelp.

The maiden's face fills with panic when she feels she's about to let go, a tear escapes her right eye as fear slowly takes her heart, and out of despair, she manages to shout "Yukari~!"

Somewhere in Mayohiga, while sleeping on Ail's old bed inside her room, Yukari opens her eyes with a gasp, and simultaneously, a large gap opens just beside Guzman, startling him and making him lose his aim the second Reimu's barrier breaks, and almost immediately, Rika comes flying out of the gap and tackles Guzman hard, sending him flying through the air and into the pond.

Rika glares at Guzman as his body slowly sinks into the water, and as soon as it's out of sight she runs toward Reimu, screaming her mistress name when she sees her lying on her face on the ground.

Rika kneels beside her mistress and shakes her hard, calling "miss Reimu! Miss Reimu, please wake up! Wake up my lady!"

Reimu's reply is a pained moan and an attempt to move, then stops and lies unmoving on the ground.

Rika screams "no~!", and tries to wake her mistress up, shaking her and whispering "my lady, it's time to get up. Get up!"

When Reimu fails to reply, Rika loses her usual calm face as she stares at Guzman, unsheathes her sword, and as he slowly gets up on his feet, she threateningly says to him "you will never lay a hand on my lady, ever again!"

* * *

Meanwhile, up the mountain, at the hearing room in the Tengu Village, one of the male tengu from the left stands asks "Hatate, he was invited. What reason could you have for covering his eyes?"

Ail is tempted to thank that tengu, but stops himself, since some other tengu from all around argue that point.

There is a sudden and loud bang, accompanied by a thunderous voice that silences all in the room.

Ail figures the voice must be Lord Tenma, so he turns to face toward the source of the voice.

With a loud and stern, but also calm and soothing tone, Tenma says "I asked her personally to blindfold him. He is an outsider, one from the world outside, just like that vile fiend that almost took one of our own!"

Ail's blood boils upon hearing those words, and without thinking, he shouts "I am NOT that man! I am Anilan Inmodo Leuch, NOT Guzman!"

The room falls into silence, and after realizing what he just did, Ail's anxiety rises to the point of having his Yozoragan mode activate on its own, followed by many surprised gasps around the room.

Ail begins to tremble; not only did he disrespect the tengu lord, but now he's giving them reason to fear him as well.

All he is able to come up with to try and lessen the tension is to drop on his knees and bow until his forehead is about to touch the floor and say "m-my apologies! I didn't mean to-"

Tenma's voice echoes around the room as he says "silence! You will only speak when spoken to. Now stand and remove that blindfold, so that you may address to me properly."

Ail is surprised at the sudden mandate, but not wanting to agitate the proud tengu any further, he stands up and slowly removes the cloth form his eyes, and after a few seconds, and his starry night sky eyes finally adjust to the light, he realizes he's been looking toward the right-side window the whole time.

He looks around with embarrassment and sees Momiji face palming and Hatate snickering next to her.

He also gets a good look at the many tengu all over the room, and after turning around, her realizes there are some crow tengu pointing at him with spears.

He gulps to lessen his embarrassment, fakes a straight face as he turns to Lord Tenma, then bows and says "um, please forgive me, Lord Tenma."

The tengu lord looks like a normal human with a thick and long beard, covering his face with a fierce-looking red mask, and clothed in an extravagant and heavy-looking white robe adored with golden edges, and little feather puffs similar to the ones Aya sometimes wears on his own tokin.

Behind him, to his left and right, sit four more tengu, though these remain hidden in shadow.

Standing on the center of the room and this time, properly facing the tengu lord, Ail bows politely, nervously flapping his ethereal wings.

Tenma stares at Ail for a moment, then finally says "we have summoned you here today because you poses knowledge about this... Guzman, plus, you were seen at the scene of the crime. Are you and that human acquainted, by any chance?"

Ail nods, then says "he's been hunting me down for a long time, trying to claim my life."

The tengu lord lifts his right arm to his face and rubs his chin under his mask, then asks "and if he were to kill you now, would he stop these attacks?"

Ail shakes his head, and with a brave look in his eyes, he says "he's a monster that lives to destroy other lives. He can kill one hundred humans in a day, and he would still seek for more to hunt."

Tenma bends slightly to get a closer look at Ail, then asks "are you telling the truth?"

Ail bows his head and says "with all due respect, I find lying will only lead to an unwelcome mess of troubles that are simply unneeded and unwanted."

The tengu lord retracts and rests his back on his tall red chair, then says "hmm, just like miss Shameimaru and miss Inubashiri say. You're almost like that girl. Enough! Anilan, you know what that man did. He attacked one of our own, and if not for the Hakurei maiden's, your own, and that maid's efforts, Aya Shameimaru, of the Crow Tengu division would be dead. We will not take this idly."

As soon as Lord Tenma finishes his sentence, Ail gasps excitedly and exclaims "then please, help us hunt that vile man down! Please, we need help. He's using very advanced technology against us and making it near impossible defeat him!"

Tenma nods as he holds his own beard, but remains silent.

Ail lowers his head to think for a moment, and quickly raises his head again and exclaims "just like last time, like when Agava tried to destroy everything! Join us! I'll... I'll convince the kappa and the humans to join in too! Please, I fear if you try to take this into your own hands... he'll just kill you all."

Tenma suddenly hums as though aggravated, making Ail a bit nervous after realizing he spoke out of turn, but he, and all the tengu in the room, including the elders hidden in shadow, are surprised when all Tenma does is chuckle, then quickly progresses to laugh.

Still chuckling, Tenma says "you are most certainly different from that other man, mister Ail! Heh, fine! The tengu will join in hunting this vile human, and put an end to his many misdeeds. And don't worry about the kappa. They have already decided to aid us."

Ail takes a deep breath of relief, knowing he gets to keep his head, then suddenly, Tenma loudly says "Momiji, Hatate, please escort mister Anilan back outside."

Momiji smiles and bows as she wags her tail uncontrollably, then says "immediately, Lord Tenma", while Hatate simply bows her head.

Tenma stands up and takes a quick bow, and just as he's about to turn around, he points at Ail and says "oh, and Ail..."

Ail raises the black cloth on his right hand and says "right, the blindfold."

Tenma waves his hand left and right, signaling Ail that he's incorrect, then says "you no longer need that. Let it be known that Anilan Inmodo Leuch is welcome to our village at any time, just like miss Reimu Hakurei, and little miss Budou."

All the tengu salute Tenma with a loud call of approval, while Ail looks around with confusion and asks "wait, Budou? Since when?"

Tenma chuckles, then says "little miss Budou fell down here one day and stole our hearts. She's been coming over ever since. Hmm, she's been visiting more often lately."

Ail blinks a few times as he stares at the tengu lord with confusion, then suddenly smiles widely, bows fast, and exclaims "thank you kindly Lord Tenma! And thank you for being so kind to my little Budou!"

Tenma suddenly points at Ail one more time, then says "oh, mister Ail, you should put those away before you cause trouble around here."

Ail looks around himself and realizes he's still in his Yozoragan mode, then quickly realizes the female crow tengu are behind him, all with pink hearts for eyes and wide, drooling smiles.

He deactivates his blood limit, his eyes return to normal and his wings disappear, making the female crow tengu complain while looking disappointed.

Ail looks at Momiji and asks "what? What's wrong with them?"

Momiji smiles sheepishly and says "come on Ail, let's take you back."

Tenma turns around, chuckling quietly, then whispers to the elders "he's as dense as she said."

The tengu snicker amongst themselves, while Ail leaves the large room, accompanied by Momiji and Hatate.

* * *

Back down the mountain, at the Giant Toad's Pond, Rika utilizes her Quicksilver to attack Guzman as relentlessly fast as possible, but Guzman remains unfazed and with the help of his ring, along with his special purple sunglasses, he is able to match Rika's sword strikes with his combat knife, while shooting at her with deadly accuracy.

Rika tries a downward swing, but Guzman blocks the attack and uses the momentum to jump away, then smiles and says "just a second later and I'd have that maiden's life. Too bad. Guess I'll have to kill you as you are; enraged and desperate."

Rika roars as she rushes forward, raising her sword above her head and readying to strike fast and hard, and leaving her torso open for attack.

Guzman quickly aims to her abdomen with the knife, but Rika expected him to do this and side-steps to the left, leaving a trail of after-images beside her, and long before they disappear, Rika grabs Guzman's arm with her left hand and strikes him hard on the face with the hilt of her sword, making him roar with pain as he steps back.

Rika takes the chance and swings her sword three times, but quickly realizes Guzman jumped back to avoid her attack, making her cut several trees instead.

Two of trees she cut fall to Reimu's sides, and the last four fall on top of those other trees, covering the shrine maiden's body without harming her, and now protect her from the battle.

At first, Rika thinks she just finished killing her own mistress, but when she realizes she's safe, she sighs, places her left hand on her chest, and says to herself "phew, that was very lucky."

Suzaku quickly shouts "master, behind you!", to which Rika reacts with an upward swing, protecting herself from getting stabbed on the back of her neck.

She pushes Guzman back with all her might, then chases after him, swinging her sword left and right, and saying "you coward, fight me honorably!"

Guzman smirks and throws what looks like a mechanical spider with a thin needle on its bottom, and it clings on to Rika's right arm and begins to absorb her energy and channel it to Guzman's ring.

Rika screams as she drops on her knees and has her extra set of wings forcefully removed.

Guzman cackles hard, then says "now you're MINE!"

Rika manages to remove the mechanical spider and cut it to pieces, but it's too late, and now Guzman is moving around as though he was teleporting all around, using her quicksilver energy.

Rika looks around with rage, unable to predict his moves, then feels something hard strike her face, then her stomach, then her back, and now finds herself lying on her stomach on the ground.

Guzman pushes his boot on her back, making her moan with pain every time he pushes his boot down, then smiles and says "this hat is amazing. I can hear him crying in my head, but I have complete control! Gotta hand it to Nitori, she sure knows her stuff!"

Rika grunts and positions her hands beside herself, then says "just shut up. Do it now!"

The mantle that is Suzaku on Rika's wings suddenly flashes red, forcing Guzman to step back and cover his eyes out of fright, giving Rika the chance to push herself up and quickly rush to him with a powerful and solid spinning kick that sends him crashing against another tree so hard, the tree itself breaks and falls on the water behind it.

Rika tries to thrust her sword through Guzman's shoulder, but he recovers quickly, thanks to the stolen energy, then starts zipping around again.

Rika closes her eyes to concentrate, and hopefully get him before he attacks, but in one second, he cuts her left leg, both shoulders, the left side of her chest, then aims for her left eye.

Rika finally finds a pattern and moves just in time to save her eye, but gets cut on her left cheek.

Guzman hesitates on his next move, giving Rika the needed chance to strike, and she thrusts her sword straight through his left thigh, making him fall to the ground while she recovers from the cut wounds.

Meanwhile, still far away from the pond, Suika and Mima try to speed up to reach Reimu and Rika in time, but even Suika is feeling strained.

Mima takes a deep breath and exclaims "we'll never get there in time at this rate!"

Suika growls inward, knowing Mima's words hold truth, then both look behind them, and from the distance, Marisa shouts "hold on!"

Marisa, who still hasn't properly dressed up, quickly catches up to the girls, and as she goes past them, Suika and Mima grab her broom and using their magic, they mix it with the broom's own, and speed up even more, surprising Marisa herself.

* * *

Back at the pond, Rika and Guzman are in a stalemate, pushing against each other, turning the clean and glistening waters of the pond into a muddy and bloody mess, destroying the lotus flowers and leaves, and all because of the madman's obsession.

Rika clenches her teeth as she glares into Guzman's eyes, then asks "why are you trying to kill me and my lady? What's the reason for all this?"

Guzman suddenly cackles manically, then suddenly stops and with a hateful frown he asks "and why not? Why should _you_, why should **anyone** even be alive? This life, EVERYTHING that we call life is a **lie**, an **illusion**!"

Rika shouts back "that's where you're wrong! Life is precious and deserves happiness!"

Guzman's hateful frown turns more dangerous, then he shouts "**happiness! ...Happiness?** There was a time I believed in that crap, but **never again**! You! You keep reminding me of how **foolish** I was, how I **foolishly** believed in happiness. THERE IS NO SUCH THING! I am going to prove this to the world, by killing every last soul on the planet and then... I'll destroy my OWN!"

Rika suddenly pushes back with all her might, sending Guzman rolling backward, then chases after him with her sword held by both hands.

She swings her blade as soon as she's in reach, but Guzman rolls away at the last second over and over, making Rika cut through all the trees around them.

Up in the sky, Marisa, Mima and Suika watch with horror as the once secluded divine pond becomes a derelict graveyard.

All the trees falling right before their eyes, one by one; toads, fairies and spirits falling over the edges of the mountain and rolling down as though dead, yet they can see the light in their eyes.

Mima quickly takes a dive, saying "they're going to destroy everything!"

Suika aims to follow the dive, but Marisa shouts "stop!", then points at Rika and Guzman as they reveal themselves from under the few remaining trees.

From the ground, Rika notices the three girls in the sky, so the deflects Guzman's knife and kicks him away, takes off the red mantel, then tosses it over the fallen trees that protect Reimu.

Up on the sky, Marisa continues to point, then aims her finger at the mantle and says "there's Reimu, but there's no point in us butting in. This is over."

Suika desperately exclaims "she's telling us to save Reimu! Let's get her while she keeps that man busy!"

To both Suika's and Mima's surprise, Marisa takes her Hakkero out of her bloomers, aims it downward, then says "trust what I say. Just wait a bit longer. If we interfere now, we might as well just kill Reimu ourselves."

Mima takes a calming deep breath, observes the situation, and after exchanging looks with Suika, they nod at each other, then Mima looks to Marisa and says "don't miss."

Marisa confidently smiles, then says "like I'd miss with my best friend on the line, ze."

* * *

Down at the pond, Guzman aims his gun at Rika and just as his spell card appears above the gun, he shouts "Dark Sign, Rapid Fire!", forcing Rika to flip backward and bend down to the ground to avoid the horizontal arcs of bullets that rapidly fly toward her.

Feigning defeat, she remains on the ground as she channels an considerable amount of dark energy to her sword, and after channeling more than enough, and the sword looks like a black oval blob, she turns it into a dark lance.

Thinking he has won, Guzman cancels his own spell, jumps to the air, holds the knife downward with both hands, then gets struck hard on the left side of his ribs by the long dark lance.

Rika flips on to her feet, while Guzman rolls on the ground, then she holds her lance on one hand and throws it at him.

The second the lance touches the ground, Guzman finds himself holding on to the ground itself so he doesn't get sucked in by the vacuum caused by the dark energy, but after realizing its futile, he activates the hat's dizzying confusion waves and allows himself to get sucked into the vortex.

Rika moans when the signal form the hat hits her hard, making her lose her balance for a moment, but she steels herself and manages to stand firmly on her feet, and just as Guzman is about to touch the center of the vortex, she leaps toward him, aiming her knee to his face.

Guzman grabs the lance and tries to pull it out and use it to his advantage, but as soon as he does, the dark magic explodes, making him scream as he flies through the air once more.

Rika flies through the dark energy and kicks his right ribs, making him spin as he flies toward the last remaining standing trees, then grabs her lance and immediately pulls out her Oath Keeper card and shouts "Oath Keeper!"

She jumps to her left, enters the golden gate as soon as it opens, comes out the other side with her fire and ice swords, and a spell card on hand.

She raises the spell cards just as Guzman hits and breaks the trees with his body, and without hesitation, she shouts "Water and Dark Sign, Cocytus: Gessenkouhou!"

She grabs the sheathed water sword and charges it up while Guzman slowly stands up, and as soon as the charge is complete, she swings the water sword and summons a massive tidal wave that flows right in front of herself and freezes the surprised Guzman as soon as the water touches him.

Rika glares at the sight of the frozen man, then shouts "do it, miss Marisa!"

Up on the sky, Marisa hears Rika call for her, and immediately shouts "Star Sign, Dragon Meteor!"

A thick, fast and powerful beam of light flies straight at the frozen image of Guzman, landing a direct hit on the man, evident by the bloody scream of pain that echoes all through the mountain, echoing all the way to the Tengu Village, where Ail, Momiji and Hatate are still admiring the tengu statues in the large building where the hearing had been held.

All three look at each other with surprise, nod, then fly straight out the large window on the left.

* * *

Back at the Giant Toad's Pond, Rika kneels on the ground, holding herself from falling by using her water sword for support, breathing heavily as she struggles to keep herself conscious.

She Manages to lift her head, saying to herself "that was close. That confusion wave was really messing with my head. Even made me want to-"

Rika gasps with terror filling her eyes when she hears Guzman speaking in a sinister tone of voice, asking "want to what? Join me in ridding the world of fools like you? Give yourself to me?"

Rika looks all around herself, to the trees covering Reimu, behind herself, and finally to the sky, but after finding no trace of Guzman, she shouts "where are you?"

There is a long pause, and just as Rika gets up, Guzman grabs her from behind and pushes the barrel of his gun against her head, activates his hat's confusion wave again, then says "I'm curious now. What did you want to do? Maybe if I give you a second dose, I can see for myself."

Rika moans and whimpers as she struggles to keep her mind straight, but it's becoming increasingly harder.

Marisa, Mima and Suika dive in to help, but Guzman, being the coward that he is, uses Rika as a shield as he shouts "stay away, or I'll make sure her brain becomes part of this... heh, landscape!"

When Rika hears him say those words, she looks around and admires the damage she helped cause, feeling guilt and starting to cry.

Guzman laughs, then mockingly says "oh, are you going to cry now? Aww, and just because you broke all the trees, tsk, tsk, tsk. I guess you'll want to die now, rather than face the consequences of your actions, so..."

He quickly tries to pull the gun's trigger, but something grabs the gun with great force and takes it away.

Guzman looks with shock to the air to find Suzaku flying away with his gun and forgetting about Rika.

The shrine maid takes the chance, strikes his already sore right ribs with her elbow, then rolls away, sheathing her ice sword as she stands up while facing the man, then unsheathing her family sword to point at him.

Guzman shouts "you little cheat, give me back my gun!"

Rika glares back at Guzman for a few seconds, then suddenly smiles and sheathes her sword again, holds out her right hand, then catches the falling gun.

Rika smiles as she walks closer to Guzman, caressing the gun as she says "you know, guns are weapons for cowards that need to feel superior for some reason I will never understand."

As she caresses the gun, a few clicking sounds reach Guzman's ears, and right before his very eyes, as she calmly speaks to him, his gun becomes various separate pieces that fall to the ground beside the shrine maid.

Rika stops walking, then says "so you thought I was tired and ready to fall just now, and like the coward you are, you thought you could do as you wanted."

Suzaku lands on Rika's right shoulder, looking menacing and squawking furiously at Guzman as Rika looks at the gun's pieces, then asks "so, which one of these has that dark spell. Is it this part?"

In the blink of an eye, she unsheathes her family sword and cuts the gun's barrel into uneven pieces that scatter all over the ground.

Guzman whimpers, making Rika smile as she points her sword at the gun's hammer, then asks "perhaps here?"

She swings her sword so fast that even with his ring active, Guzman has trouble following the slashes as they turn the few remaining parts of the gun into nothing but scrap, leaving only the handle split open in half.

Rika looks at the inside of the right handle piece and finds a magical circle drawn with chalk and blood, then looks at Guzman through the corner of her eyes with a frown, and suddenly smirks.

She slightly lifts her sword, takes a deep breath, then swings is so fast and so many times, when she's done, the gun's handle with the magic circle turns to dust before everyone's eyes.

Guzman growls and shouts "what have you done? You demonic witch, I'm going to kill you~!"

He blindly rushes toward Rika, but the shrine maid kicks him to the air, where Suika grabs him, lifts him up, then punches him straight up to Mima.

The evil spirit grabs him by his jacket, then kisses his forehead, filling his head with more nightmares of the crying child, making him scream as though being tortured, then throws him back down, where Marisa is waiting for him while on her broom.

She flips in the air at the right time, then strikes Guzman hard to the ground with the broom, where he leaves a crater in front of the shrine as soon as he lands on his face.

Rika walks closer to him as he whimpers and struggles to get up, then places her foot on his back and says "you'll pay for all the crimes you have committed, and rest assured, you will answer for what you did to my lady's friend."

Suzaku suddenly starts to sing the Onkamikami family song, then takes flight.

Rika grabs Guzman by the back of his shirt and forces him on his knees, then shouts "up! On your feet! Miss Suika and miss Mima will escort you back home while miss Marisa and I take care of miss Reimu, and I assure you, if something's wrong with my lady, I'll make you pay **tenfold**!"

Inside his mind, Guzman is unable to hear Rika's voice, while Suzaku's song enters clearly and swims all over his memories, all the way until he starts seeing a little girl with bushy brown hair tied to twin tails, making her look like Nitori, only younger.

The girl looks at the man with a straight face, then suddenly starts to cry, and just as she does, he can hear the voice of the girl screaming at the top of her lungs "papa! Save me papa~!"

Her voice comes accompanied by the cackle of a man, then there are two explosions, followed by a maddening silence.

At present, Guzman stays on his keens, holding his head while staring down with a crazed expression on his face, and while Suzaku continues to sing, his face contorts as the girl's screams echo inside his mind.

Without warning, Guzman suddenly screams as though he's being hit by Marisa's Dragon Meteor once more.

Rika jumps away when she notices the maddened expression on Guzman's face and points her sword at him.

He looks around, breathing through his clenched teeth, then notices the edge of the mountain and runs straight to it.

Realizing his aim, Rika shouts "stop him!", but neither Marisa or Suika are able to grab him before he jumps off the edge, waving his arms and legs in the air.

By the time Suika, Marisa and Rika reach the edge, Guzman is long gone, leaving no trace of his presence below.

* * *

By now, Ail, Momiji and Hatate reach the pond's entrance, however, they are met by a very angry giant toad that croaks at everyone in a manner that seems like he's roaring furiously, demanding them all to leave.

Suika flies away with fright, saying "whoa, he's really mad! Get away from him!"

Ail takes a step back as he loudly asks "whoa, what the hell happened here?"

The usually glistening and peaceful waters of the pond now look like a muddy and bloody mess with scattered petals and leaves.

The ground looks like it's just another war zone with bloody splatters all over, the trees are all gone, all cut or broken, and all that remains intact is the small shrine, though the ground in front of it has the crater left by Guzman's body.

The giant toad flings its tongue at Marisa, wraps it around her torso, then tosses her away from what remains of the pond.

Slowly, the smaller toads and spirits that fell over the edge of the mountain slowly make their way back, immediately pushing away all that try to get close to the pond; all but Rika, who kneels in front of the shrine and prays.

The giant toad angrily hops to the shrine maid and croaks with fury when its close enough.

Rika sobs and nods, then says "please forgive me! Please, allow me to return your pond! It's the least I can do!"

The toad croaks so loudly, it appears he's roaring furiously.

Outside the pond, Suzaku perches on Ail's shoulder, then tweets long and loudly.

Inside the pond, the giant toad croaks at Rika, then slowly turns to face the trees that protect Reimu, then stays still.

Rika takes her family's sword and raises it to the air, spreading her long wings open as a spell card appears flying above her head.

She closes her eyes and loudly says "Life Sign, Revitalize no Shugohoujin Ryu!"

The spell card spins rapidly and shines brightly above her head, then disappears.

She holds her sword with both hands as she lowers it to a forty-five degree angle, then spins with it and forms a circle around herself, then stops and stabs the sword hard on to the ground inside the circle.

She claps her hands together and chants rapidly, and as she does, symbols and seals start drawing themselves under her feet.

Once the drawing is done, Rika pushes her own energy to the magic circle and makes it expand rapidly, covering the entire pond in just seconds.

Right before everyone's eyes, the ground get restored, the water slowly regains its crystalline shimmer and clear view, the lotus flowers revive and seem to grow in number, the trees that were broken turn to green danmaku orbs, revealing Reimu safely underneath them, sitting as she smiles at Rika, taking away the worry her friends outside the pond had for her.

As Rika continues to heal the pond, all that is healed releases green danmaku orbs that gather above her head.

In battle, Rika would raise her sword from the ground and use this gathered energy to attack, but this time, she only raises her hands and takes a deep breath.

The gathered danmaku turns to a giant orb that morphs into a giant snake-like dragon that roars as it takes flight.

Once high enough, the dragon roars one more time and explodes into soothing light-green energy droplets that resurrect the trees in the pond and makes them grow to their original size once more, heal all the toads and the pond's spirits, and even heal Reimu herself, giving her the needed energy to stand.

Finally, the remaining energy spreads over the mountain, giving everyone that is near a soothing sensation that seems to lift all their troubles away.

Once she's done, Rika exhales her breath, picks up her sword, promptly sheathes it, looks at Reimu, smiles in a most angelical manner, then says "my lady, you may finish your restoration ritual."

Reimu smiles and giggles, then progresses to laugh as she runs to Rika, gives her a hug, then says "you incorrigible maid! Thank you! Thank you for coming! I really thought he had me! Thank you so much!"

Tired and still wounded, Rika returns Reimu's hug with a light pat on the back, then says "I will protect my lady as fiercely as this land. Now go on my lady. You need to restore your powers."

* * *

Later, at noon, at the Hakurei Shrine, everyone enjoys a small celebration feast prepared by Rika, Ail and Momiji, celebrating Reimu's return and good health, and Guzman's recent and hard defeat.

Ail sits next to Aya, Shizuha and Minoriko, while Momiji, Hatate and Rika enjoy a happy conversation amongst themselves over the kitchen.

Reimu, Marisa, Mima and Suika seem to be having a more serious discussion around the kotatsu, all while Suzaku sleeps on Reimu's lap and enjoys herself while the shrine maiden scratches her head.

While looking at this scene, Ail thinks to himself "how can one man do this much evil? Just like Rika says, he's turning this paradise into a warzone! Well now that she took care of that gun, I should be able to help out some more! I won't allow him to do to anybody else what he did to Aya. I'll stop him and put an end to all of this, once and for all."

Ail is abruptly brought out of his thoughts when Mima suddenly calls out "oy~ Rika! Come over here for a moment!"

He watches as Rika walks toward Mima with a look of confusion in her eyes, and wonders what is it Mima wants to say.

Rika approaches Mima, her mistress and the other girls, wondering if their sake bottle is empty again, and after she approaches them, she smiles, bows and asks "what is it, miss Mima?"

Reimu and Marisa get to their feet, Reimu holding on to Suzaku and saying "we need to discuss something over here. Don't mind us", then leave Rika with Mima and Suika.

Rika looks a little worried, not knowing the reason for all this, then the two youkai smile as they look at Rika, then Mima says "Rika, we both wanted to thank you."

Rika looks with surprise at the girls, smiles, and asks "really? What for?"

Suika looks seriously at Rika and says "Reimu is someone very important to us. She's a very unique human, and the thought of losing her to someone as vile as that man is..."

Mima quickly says "it's not normal for youkai to grow attached to humans like this, and well..."

Suddenly, Rika's sword takes its colorful state, and the jewel on the hilt glows intense blue twice over.

Rika's smile widens as she looks at the embarrassed girls, bows to them, then says "thank you so much. I-I'm so glad you feel I'm worthy to be your friend!"

Suika scratches her pink left cheek and says "aww, come on. We've told you that friends of Reimu are our friends."

Mima floats just above the floor and hovers toward Rika, gives her a hug, then says "we weren't sure about your real intentions regarding Reimu, but... after today it has become clear to us that you love her, maybe as much as we do. For that, we thank you."

Mima gently pushes Rika away, and she realizes the entire shrine's attention is on her, making her blush and flap her wings involuntarily as she giggles and says "oh, you're making me blush. Stop it."

All but Reimu and Ail have a sudden burst of blood gushing down their noses, to which Rika looks around with concern and asks "oh no, not again! Is it an epidemic?"

Ail chuckles, then loudly says "you're doing that on purpose."

To his right, Aya suddenly spring up, looks at Ail, then suddenly pushes herself away with her left leg, shouting at the top of her lungs "waah~! Get away, get him AWAY~!"

The terror on the tengu's eyes as they cast themselves upon the young boy let him know he is not welcomed by her.

Ail frowns, his eyes hide under a dark shadow and he grinds his teeth under his lips, while Aya keeps screaming while staring at him.

Reimu, Marisa, Minoriko and Shizuha rush to Aya and try to calm her down, telling her it's only Ail, then Aya suddenly growls and scowls as she says "wait a minute, let me at him! I'll Kill him! I'm going to ki-"

Just like that, Aya stops moving, exhales, then falls back to an unconscious state, leaving all in the shrine with dumfounded looks on their faces.

After she's sure Aya is alright, Reimu sighs and looks to Ail as she says "there. Boy, that was rather... Ail?"

When everyone turn their eyes to Ail, they realize he is long gone.

Reimu stares at the spot he was sitting on for a little longer, then says "oh dear."

* * *

That night, at the Moriya Shrine, Ail sits on the shrine's porch, leaning against one of the supports for the roof while looking down at his feet as they dangle just above the ground.

Budou slowly approaches Ail and stares at him, then sits next to him, rests her head against his chest, then says "papa, take that dark off your heart. Papa's heart should be light, like always."

Ail turns his teary eyes to Budou, rubs her little shoulder, then sighs.

Budou sighs with him, then sniffles and says "if you want, I can beat them up and make them apologize. You just tell me who did it, and I'll set them straight!"

Ail remains silent as he looks to the sky, then suddenly asks "Budou, would you be afraid of me? After all, I am a man, just like that Guzman. Would you be afraid of me?"

Budou gasps and angrily replies "no~! Papa is NOT like that evil man!"

Ail suddenly smiles and holds Budou tighter, and just as Sanae exits the shrine to serve some tea and snacks for them, Ail begins to sob.

He covers his eyes with his left hand and asks "would you be afraid of me too?"

He remembers the way Byakuren looked at him before Budou intervened and made her apologize;

how Nitori gave him that look, as if blaming him for what he did when he tried to rescue her;

how Sakuya kept looking at him while he visited the mansion, the fright on Flandre's face when he entered her room, how he was viciously attacked at the library, all because he was a man, and finally, what finally broke him to tears, the look of sheer horror on Aya's face when she saw him.

Without realizing it, he's being embraced by both Budou and Sanae as he cries away the pain and frustration in his heart.

Meanwhile, somewhere around the Human Village's outskirts, Nitori and Rumia sit around a small bonfire while they wait for Agava to return.

A small black blob slithers toward them, and after reaching the empty spot between the girls, it rises and turns to Agava in a second.

Nitori stares sternly at the shadow youkai and roughly asks "well? Did you find out?"

Agava nods, then says "the shadows know a lot, dear girl. He's headed toward the Bamboo Forest, but first, he's going to get something from the Nameless Hill."

Nitori closes her eyes to think, then angrily asks "and what about those two, Ail and Rika?"

Agava shrugs and says "I can't get too close to them, though I can tell you, he is in a lot of pain right now. Brr, what a horrible feeling."

Rumia smiles and says "this is getting more exciting by the moment!"

Nitori scoffs, then says "we're going to the Bamboo Forest. I need to confront him there. You two keep everyone away, and keep out of it too! I don't want anyone or anything to interfere!"

Rumia and Agava both nod and say at the same time "sure thing..."

* * *

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Budou, Agava and Guzman were created by Willie G.R.

Guzman's Spell Card:

Dark Sign, Rapid Fire, was created by Willie G.R.

Rika Onkamikami and Suzaku were created by Snapshot 2010

Rika's Spell Cards:

Water and Dark Sign, Cocytus: Gessenkouhou (Cocytus: Moon Fall)

and Life Sign, Revitalize no Shugouhoujin Ryu (Dragon Guardian Field of Revitalize), were created by Snapshot 2010

OCT 23 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N:**

**Note that I address to Letty Whiterock as a "yuki-onna", which can translate to (from what I've been told) to either "snow woman", or "snow witch". I am following what says about her on wikia, so pick whichever you like as the meaning, and enjoy the read.

* * *

**

After having escaped the fierce battle at the Giant Toad's Pond, Guzman wanders aimlessly around Gensokyo, hiding the crazed look on his face underneath the mirror cloak.

He suddenly stumbles to his left, then to his right, and continues to stumble around in zigzags until he finally falls to the ground and the cloak unveils, revealing the look of despair and madness on his face, which even his precious hat fails to erase.

In his mind, he's walking around in the darkness, looking for a way out, but all exits he finds lead him straight to the crying dark-brown haired girl, who wears a light blue overall dress with a white short sleeved button shirt underneath, and wearing a pair of dark-blue boots.

Every time he comes across the little girl, he runs away as though seeing the devil himself, repeating the scene over and over again, until he finally finds himself trapped, surrounded by eight bright doors, all with the same little girl standing at the doorway, staring at him without showing any expression, yet crying without stop.

Guzman cowers in the center of it all, trying to hide himself in the darkness, curling up into a ball on the unseen floor, until the girl stands in front of him, and with a sweet and soft tone of voice, she asks "where are you? Where is your heart?"

Inside his mind, Guzman suddenly springs on to his knees, spreads his arms beside himself and looks upward while screaming as loud as he can, while outside his mind, he clenches his teeth and foams at the mouth while trembling so violently, he digs through the snow beneath him.

Just as it all started, everything stops, his face returns to normal, his body stops shaking, and he sighs as though in relief.

He closes his eyes, breathes deeply, then whispers "I can't be, since it's all a lie. Nothing is real. None of us exist."

After saying those words, he slowly gets up on his seat and rubs his head under the hat, then grunts when the image of the girl flashes right before his very eyes.

He growls as he forces himself back on to his feet and looks around himself, then notices several small fairies looking at him while hiding behind a tree.

He turns his face away, hiding a vile smile, takes two steps backward while looking away, yet keeping the corner of his eyes fixed on the small red-haired fairy in the middle of the small group.

He places his left hand on the combat knife, pauses for almost a minute, then throws it straight toward the fairy's head in a flash.

The little fairy yelps loudly when the knife strikes and sinks inside her head, dying in a most horrible manner and scaring away the other fairies.

Guzman gets closer to the little fairy, staring at her empty rolled-back eyes, smiles, then starts cackling manically.

* * *

THREE DAYS LATER

A blinding snowstorm strikes hard on the land of Gensokyo, trapping all but the winter spirits inside their houses.

Letty Whiterock, the yuki-onna with short and curvy lavender haired, with eyes that match the color of her hair, that wears a blue skirt and vest with long sleeved white undershirt and matching white hat, walks around through the storm with a wide smile on her face, enjoying the harsh weather and making sure it's even harsher around herself.

She spreads her arms and twirls around as if dancing, then says to herself "what a wonderful weather! Oh how I wish all winter days were like this!"

She stops dancing and thinks for a moment, then smiles and says "oh, why not? Let's make it a three day storm!"

She raises her arms above her head, thinking of intensifying the snowstorm a little, then looks up to the sky with curiosity and asks herself "what's this? Is that human suicidal?"

She stares at the sky for a little longer, admiring the silhouette in the sky, then shrugs and with a casual smile on her face she takes off to the air while saying "I see. It's him. Might as well say hi."

She quickly reaches the figure and looks with disgust at the ruined, yet warm-looking brown cloak he wears.

The figures stops moving when Letty reaches him, then she says "hello Ail, it's been a long time!"

Ail gets closer to Letty, revealing the tired look in his starry night-sky eyes under his hood, and with a smile on his face, he removes the hood and asks "Letty, how are you? Hey, you wouldn't happen to have come across a man with a cowboy hat and purple sunglasses, would you?"

Letty frowns and says "you mean that Guzman human even Cirno is taking about so much? No, I haven't seen him."

Ail lowers his head in disappointment, then a cold gust hits his face, making his already red cheeks look even redder next to his pale face.

Letty stares at him and pays close attention to his eyes when he opens them again, and sounding a bit surprised she says "oh, what magnificent eyes. Can I have them?"

Ail looks neutrally at Letty, then smiles and says "it's a little trick I learned thanks to a friend. And now, they don't really come off anyway."

He looks around Letty for a moment, then asks "hey, where's Cirno? I thought she'd be all over you, like every winter."

Letty growls as she smiles, then says "she's currently in time-out. At least until she cools her head a little."

Somewhere over the frozen waters of the Misty Lake, Cirno is frozen inside a large ice cube with her arms and legs spread open while scowling and apparently trying to shout.

Back at the sky, Ail closes his eyes as he nods, then says "well then, if you see that Guzman, please don't fight him. Get help, call Reimu, call me, just don't fight him on your own. He's very dangerous, even for youkai."

Letty's smile turns dangerously ominous as she says "the day I run away from a human, is the day wint-"

Ail's eyes intensify in a manner that makes them look like a red sky as he suddenly shouts "don't you underestimate him! He almost succeeded in killing a tengu, so don't you **dare** underestimate him, did you hear me?"

Letty gasps when Ail's ethereal wings become visible under his brown cloak, and the powerful energy they emanate is more than enough to actually scare her.

She looks at Ail with terror in her own eyes, nods twice, then says "sorry, I was... just-just playing around with you."

Ail sighs, calming himself down, then calmly says "I'm sorry I had to do that, but it's the only way you stubborn youkai will listen to me. Human or not, that man is dangerous."

Somehow, the storm dies down enough for Ail to continue his search, so he bows to Letty and says "it's time I resumed my search. You take care, you hear?"

Letty nods quietly, acknowledging Ail's statement, then Ail covers himself with the hood again, turns around, then continues his search, heading toward the Human Village.

The yuki-onna stays where she is, staring at Ail with fright and curiosity.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Hakurei Shrine, Aya wriggles around like a worm in her futon after being rolled up and tied with rope so she doesn't escape.

She manages to get the part of the rope closest to her face and gnaws on it with the hopes of breaking free.

Rika approaches Aya and bends closer in hopes that Aya will stop gnawing on the ropes, but Aya simply glares at her through the corner of her eyes while brazenly biting down harder on the ropes.

Rika giggles, then says "miss Aya, we already talked about this. You can't be trusted on your own, so please stop biting those."

Aya growls after taking another hard bite, so Rika, with a smile on her face, places her right hand on her right cheek and loudly says "miss Reimu, she's doing it again!"

Reimu suddenly appears behind Aya, bending her knees and resting her head on her left hand while holding her gohei on her right hand, smiling almost too friendly while saying "Aya~ Don't make me use the charm again."

Aya twitches at the sound of Reimu's voice and leaves her mouth wide open along with her fearfully shocked eyes.

The rope slides right out of her mouth and out of her reach, to which Reimu continues to smile, pats Aya's head, then says "that's a good bird. Now just rest until you get better."

Aya suddenly starts to bawl while saying "wah~! But I have to go and get the scoop~!"

She suddenly stops her bawling, looks around with a confused face, then says "no wait, I need to..."

Aya lets herself drop on her futon, gently laying her head on the floor as her expression changes to sadness, then in a sad tone of voice, she asks "did I really say those things? To Ail, did I say all that?"

The room's atmosphere immediately changes, and even Suika, who was laughing at the sight from under the kotatsu, frowns as Rika says "I... I'm afraid so, miss Aya."

The crow tengu starts to roll left and right while crying "then let me go so I can apologize~!"

Reimu gently grabs hold of the sides of Aya's head with her hands, stopping her from rolling around some more, then looks at Aya with a sad smile and says "I told you, not even Budou or Sanae know where he is. All they know is that he left that whistle with a note, saying to call him if they needed him, and that he was looking for Guzman."

Mentioning that name causes Aya's hair to frizzle, her eyes to pop out of their sockets, then she starts wriggling around, repeating "get him away! No wait, I'll kill him! I'll REALLY kill him! But that hurt! I don't want to hurt anymore!"

Reimu sighs and places a red charm on Aya's forehead, putting her to sleep instantly, then looks at Rika's and Suika's concerned faces and says "sorry, I forgot."

Suika groans as she turns around to lie on her back, then says "I never thought a simple thing like a name would affect that girl so much."

Rika kneels beside Aya with a cup of water, and as Reimu lifts her head, Rika helps the crow tengu drink the water while saying "well, that monster did something terrible to her, miss Suika."

Rika takes the cup of water away from Aya's lips, and while Reimu uses a piece of cloth to clean the excess off her lips, Rika looks to Suika and says "being so close to death... can be a very powerful experience, and not everyone can handle that so easily."

Suika stares back at Rika with understanding eyes, but with confusion as well, while Reimu starts brushing Aya's hair with her fingers and looking down with a sad expression, knowing full-well Rika has gone through that experience already.

The snow storm suddenly picks up outside, making the roof creak as more heavy snow piles up on it, so Suika stands up with a shovel that appears mysteriously on her right hand already, then says "I'll take care of that. You make sure she rests."

Reimu and Rika both nod with a smile and say "thank you very much."

Suika opens the sliding door to the front of the shrine and finds Tenshi standing with her left hand raised as though about to knock on the door, and hugging herself with her right hand while shivering.

Her skin is almost blue, and icicles have formed under her nose, chin, right elbow and all around her hat, and after stammering for a moment, she finally manages to say "h-h-hey... w-w-what's up...? I k-k-knocked... b-b-but no one..."

While the celestial's teeth start to clatter, Suika narrows her right eye and says "Rika, you have a guest."

Long before Rika or Reimu can see who it is, Mima phases right through the back door, wearing a pair of goggles and faking she's flying against the wind while inside, loudly saying "Reimu~! The storm is crazy!"

Reimu face palms herself, while Rika simply giggles and says "I'll get some hot chocolate ready."

Reimu immediately lifts her head with an eager smile and says "ooh, add the marshmallows this time!"

* * *

Meanwhile, near the eastern outskirts of the Human Village, Nitori, Agava and Rumia rest inside a strange silver tent, which is as big as a human's house on the inside.

Rumia sleeps on the top bunk of a twin bed, while Agava and Nitori glare at each other from across the kotatsu, both using chopsticks to grab hold of and fight over a tiny cucumber slice, even though there are more to chose from.

Nitori pulls on the cucumber slice while she scowls and smiles at Agava, saying "you said he was going to the Bamboo Forest, then you said he went to the flower youkai's domain, then you said he was here. Make up your tiny mind already!"

Agava manages to pull the slice toward herself while she returns the angry smile and replies "I told you, he's been wandering around aimlessly and continues to do so! Last I checked, he was headed **this** way!"

Nitori pulls hard on the slice, taking it all the way beside her face and pulling Agava along as she replies "for your sake, he better, or I'm going to use that new _toy_ on you!"

Agava recovers and pulls hard on the slice, hard enough to pull Nitori to the table as she replies "I can't predict the damned future, so you keep that _toy_ away, unless you want me to drag you into the shad- Whoops!"

Agava pulls too hard, and the cucumber slice flies away behind her and falls straight into Rumia's open mouth, who simply swallows it and smacks her lips without missing a snore.

Nitori and Agava stare as the slice disappears before their eyes, then Nitori pushes herself off the table while saying "well, whatever. I guess we'll just have to keep looking."

Agava sighs and crosses her arms across her chest while looking away as though looking for something to say, when Nitori points at the shadow youkai's chest and asks "have you been using the growth function on my-?"

Agava rapidly places her arms over her chest, then blushes and smiles as she says "th-that's none of your business!"

Nitori seems to ignore the shadow youkai and looks around as though she's just seen a ghost, and without saying a word, she rushes to the bed underneath Rumia's, picks up her silver backpack and ring, then rushes outside.

Agava looks surprised at Nitori and asks "hey, what's the matter? Where are you going?"

Nitori squeezes the right strap of her backpack, making a golden clip appear between the straps and linking them together, then says "he's here! I can feel it!"

She punches the golden clip and almost immediately, a thick blue coat wraps her up, then she immediately runs outside the tent, leaving Agava rushing to close the door before the storm gets inside.

After wandering around in the storm for almost thirty minutes, Nitori is about to give up on her search, when finally, her backpack seems to react to something, making a soft clinking sound.

As if knowing exactly where he is, Nitori looks to her right towards some trees and shouts "GUZMAN!"

Nitori stands just as she is, looking toward the leafless trees, until Guzman reveals himself from underneath the crystal cloak, his face full of stubbles and his hair unkempt under his hat, shooting a very hateful stare at the kappa.

Nitori gasps and smiles at the sight, and without placing much thought into her words, she shouts "Guzman, let's go back home! W-we can rebuild the resort from scratch, show EVERYONE your true nature, and then..."

Guzman continues to glare at the little kappa before him, then calmly says "you are one very **stupid** girl, you know."

Nitori gasps and simply watches as he turns around and disappears, heading toward the village, but before she has time to follow after him, she stops when she hears a loud thud behind her.

When she turns around, she sees Ail opening his arms in a welcoming manner, smiling and looking with longing at her while saying "Nitori, you're alright! Thank goodness! I've been looking all over for you."

Just as Ail finishes his sentence, Nitori's face twists with immeasurable hatred, then she softly says "you bastard. You scared him away again."

Ail frowns and drops his hands, shakes his head, then softly says "Nitori, please... I just wanted to help you; to save you."

Nitori continues to glare at Ail, remembering all that's happened in a flash, and feeling more and more confused, all the can do is glare at Ail while holding back her desire to cry.

* * *

The snowstorm continues to assault both Ail and Nitori as they just stand several feet away from each other, neither one capable of saying a single word to the other.

Nitori lowers her hand and turns away from Ail, and in an unfriendly and low tone of voice, she says "I don't have time to deal with you. I have to fix this mess **you** caused; get Guzman back and fix my resort. By the way, you're no longer welcome once it's rebuilt."

Ail seems to recover himself from exhaustion and loudly shouts "I didn't blow up the place, that Guzman did!"

Nitori turns her head just slightly to the left, as if trying to look at Ail, then replies "teh, don't think you'll go unpunished for that. You and that shrine maiden's maid."

With those words, her backpack begins to glow as though made entirely of light, giving Nitori the chance to walk away while Ail remains covering his starry-night sky eyes with his forearms and shouting "Nitori! Don't go, please!"

The snowstorm suddenly stops, the trees around Ail vanish and are replaced by a giant wall made of aquamarine waving lights.

Ail lowers his arms to look around and realize he's trapped inside of what looks like a giant fish tank, and true enough, below his feet, water begins to slowly rise from the snow-covered ground.

Ail gasps, closes his eyes to think, and after calming down and opening his eyes again, he sees there is a ghostly image of Nitori in front of him.

She wears her normal outfits, and her own green backpack, but her eyes are white and look like the eyes of a blood-thirsty killer, and she frizzles like a bad video image.

Ail slowly shakes his head, summons a short and blunt sword-like object, claps his hands together to make another sword of light on his left hand, and after spreading his ethereal dragon wings open, he stares sternly at the ghostly image of Nitori and says "you really believe in that vile man. Fine, I'll do what I must to stop you both."

The ghostly kappa makes a strange noise when it tries to speak, then raises a spell card above her head, tries to say something out loud, and just like that, magical water bubbles begin to rain down on Ail.

Meanwhile, Guzman arrives to the Human Village in a flash and looks all around, admiring the many lit windows around the quiet and empty streets.

The villagers are all cozy inside their houses, safe from the harsh cold of the snowstorm, though still threatened to have their roofs fall over their heads thanks to the weight of the snow piling up on the roof.

Guzman sneers and opens the left side of his cloak, and almost instantly, a red haired fairy with eerie blue skin, dirty jagged teeth and wearing bloodied undergarments, rushes forth and breaks into one of the houses, where the inhabitants, a man and a woman, start to scream and call for help.

The snowstorm suddenly dies down a bit, and wasting no time, Guzman reveals his right side, carrying one of the black bags around his shoulders while keeping the other one on him like a backpack.

He unzips the bag and rummages through it, finds a dark brown bomb-like object with two sets of square light-brown wings, then throws it to the sky.

While he does that, the strange fairy can be heard breaking everything inside the house, while the man and the woman run around in hopes to escape.

They manage to run outside the house just as the clouds in the sky split apart, letting the sun shine through, but they are too frightened to be paying attention to that, seeing as now the couple find themselves between the sneering Guzman and the deadly fairy standing over the door to their house.

The man manages to take a deep breath to shout "it's Guzman~!", then the vile human swings his right arm, silencing the man.

The woman trembles and looks around herself with terror in her eyes, then tries to make a run for it toward the village's center, but when she tries to drag her husband, he falls to the ground while the blood from a cut on his neck stains the snow.

The woman places her hands on her face and tries hard to scream, but all she can do is exhale while trembling violently, and just like that, the little blue-skinned fairy jumps out of the house and bites down hard on the woman's neck.

The woman stares with a terrorized look on her face as Guzman simply smiles at her and softly says "it's all going to be over soon, so just accept your fate without regrets."

The crazed fairy places her little claws on the woman's chest, then rips her skin all the way up to her neck.

From the front houses, two men scream out loud, alerting their neighbors of Guzman's presence, making the vile man and the crazed fairy smile, and placing his hand on the fairy's head, Guzman says "go! This is your playground now!"

The little fairy snickers as she takes off to hunt for more humans while Guzman simply laughs loudly while raising his arms and looking up at the artificial sun-like object in the sky.

* * *

Meanwhile, inside the large fish tank-like arena, which is almost half the size of the Hakurei Shrine's courtyard, the water has already risen to the point of reaching five inches off the ground, and still filling up fast.

Ail finds himself walking on the water to use his blunt sword-like weapons to bounce back the incoming magic water bubbles while striking the ghostly image of Nitori whenever in reach.

Though his weapons go right through her, every hit makes her frizzle and turn to static for a second, yet she doesn't stop attacking.

She just summons more and more water orbs and forces Ail to retreat, flapping his ethereal wings while running on the water, away from the ghostly kappa with a panicked look on his face and panting desperately.

Finally, after reaching the opposite end of the magical arena, Ail skids on the water as he twirls around, bats a few orbs away from himself with his weapon, then stops when facing ghost Nitori.

Ail smiles confidently, then says "haven't used mine in a while. Hope I'm not too rusty."

Ghost Nitori narrows her right eye and opens her left eye wider as Ail shuts off his weapons for a moment, takes a spell card from his pocket, and while the card spins in front of his chest, he shouts "I'm aiming for a one-hit kill! Mad Waves, Raging Waves!"

Immediately, Ail summons his dual-swords while he positions four pairs of eight massive blue energy orbs vertically to his left and right, then two more pairs that set themselves horizontally in front of him.

Ail smirks, summons his weapons of light, and swings them around as the large orbs fly slowly toward ghost Nitori, spreading as they make their way to her, suddenly surrounded by countless shard-shaped bullets and furious water waves.

Ghost Nitori simply stares at the attack as it striker her, but even while being hit hard, she doesn't show any discomfort, however, her attacks stop.

Ail smiles confidently, takes a deep breath, then says to himself "this is over. Now to... what?"

Ail looks with surprise and shock when he realizes ghost Nitori stands right where she was, holding another spell card and wailing loudly.

Soon after, a horrible smell forces him to grab hold of his nose, then looks with horror at the ridiculous amount of sickly-looking tiny orbs scattering his way.

When he begins to think of another plan, he realizes the water has risen even more, to the point of filling half of the concealed arena, and all thanks to his own spell, and with a worried and slightly embarrassed look on his face, he face palms and says "shit, I did not think that one through."

The magical shirikodama make their way to Ail, turning his attention to the battle once more, and quickly he realizes that no matter how hard he tries, he will never be able to deflect all those bullets.

He closes his eyes to concentrate, then his chest starts glowing brightly.

A spell card appears floating right in front of his glowing chest, then Ail loudly says "Brightness, Overwhelming Heart!"

Large white rings of light grow from Ail's heart until he's surrounded by fifteen of them, all circling around him, protecting him from the tiny bullets, but instead of spreading and disappearing as they should, they remain where they are, spinning around the boy.

Ail smiles again, brandishes his weapons, then runs straight at ghost Nitori, breaking through her bullet shower as though it's not even there, protected by his rings of light, and without hesitation he goes straight for the ghostly kappa.

The rings burn the ghostly image, while Ail relentlessly attacks over and over with his weapons of light, and finally, after spinning in place and striking her head and abdomen, Ail swings downward with such force, the moment his weapons touch the water underneath ghost Nitori, a large water spire cuts the ghostly kappa in half.

Ail stops his attack and watches as ghost Nitori's own spell stops, and in a low tone of voice and looking saddened, he says "I'm sorry for what happened Nitori, but you got the wrong guys. We, Rika and I, tried to save you from that man. We never wanted to hurt you. You know me Nitori, I would never do something to hurt you deliberately."

The ghost image turns into an orb of light, yet its voice can now be heard clearly as she calmly says "you lie! Take your punishment now, and take your lies with you to the Netherworld. Water Sign, Water Carpet!"

Ail gasps when the ghostly light disappears, yet her spell activates and starts filling the enclosed arena with more water at an alarming rate.

Ail cancels his spell, calls off his weapons, then says to himself "dammit, she's really going to kill me!"

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu sits under the kotatsu along with Tenshi and Marisa, all drinking hot tea and eating snacks while Rika tends to Aya, along with Shizuha and Minoriko, who are covered with a bit of melting snow over their clothes.

Reimu places her teacup on the table, watching as Rika feeds Aya with a spoon, stretching the right side of her lip with mischievous thoughts of teasing Aya.

She takes in enough breath to speak, then there is a sudden and disturbing sound from afar, and from outside Suika exclaims "whoa! Reimu, the Village is on fire!"

Reimu, Rika, Tenshi and Marisa spring to their feet as Reimu and Rika say "it's him!"

As they run outside through the left-side doors, Reimu loudly says "Aki girls, take care of Aya while we take care of this!"

Reimu sits beside Marisa on her broom, then, along with Tenshi, Rika, Mima and Suika, they all fly away toward the village, leaving the two young goddesses waving at the door, shouting back "come back safely~!"

Minoriko adds "and don't worry, we'll take good care of her."

When they turn around to look at Aya, they both gasp with horror and hug each other as though having seen Guzman himself standing before them.

The futon lies empty on the floor with the part of the rope closes to Aya's head bitten broken.

Minoriko and Shizuha look at each other with frightened faces, then Shizuha asks "Minoriko?"

Minoriko asks "what is it nee-san?"

Shizuha replies "I think we're in trouble."

Minoriko cries, then says "she's going to kill us again."

At the village, Guzman boldly stands in plain view on the streets, where the melting snow makes it look as though a river is crossing over the village itself.

He charges Nitori's disks with sunlight and throws them around, burning all they touch, including the houses and the desperate humans.

Between Guzman and the deadly blue fairy, there are now five dead humans, two elders, the old couple, and one young woman.

Guzman laughs when he spots Kasen trying to lead as many of the humans to Keine's school, then throws one of the disks straight at her.

Kasen sees the disk and prepares to intercept it, but the blue fairy jumps from the left and knocks her to the ground, trying to take a bite off her neck with her bloodied jagged teeth.

Kasen pushes back with all her might, quickly finding out how strong the small creature really is, then says "get off me before I smack you!"

Kasen gasps when she sees the fiery disk flying above herself and the deadly fairy, and watches with despair as the disk cuts through the abdomen of a man that had come to save her.

Guzman starts to laugh and shouts "another one is free from the lies and out of my sight!"

Kasen finds the strength to kick the fairy off and send her flying against a tree, knocking her out in the process, then flips on her feet and furiously rushes over to Guzman, raising her fist as she prepares to strike his face with all her fury.

Guzman moves slightly to the right as the very last moment, avoiding the attack and leaving Kasen staring in shock, then smiles at the hermit as he sends a powerful knee on to her stomach that sends her flying backward, making her knock out a woman and a young child that were running through as she flies by.

Guzman instinctively aims to grab his gun, but roars softly when he remembers how he lost it the moment his hand clenches the air around the gun's old sheath.

He scoffs and looks around his backpack, smiles, then pulls out one more disk, aims the polished side at the artificially sunny sky to charge it up, and shouts "don't worry folks, I have enough here to wipe out three of these villages!"

He aims the charged disk at Kasen, the boy and the young woman, smiles, and when he throws it, he is blinded by a flash bomb that explodes right in front of him.

To his right, Kyo, Luna and Medicine rush toward him, all ready to fight for the village.

Behind Guzman, away from the danger, Nitori watches with horror as the man continues to use her inventions to destroy and murder, standing on one spot, unable to react to anything that's happening around her.

Rumia appears to her left, and Agava to her right, then the shadow youkai places her left hand on Nitori's right shoulder, and in a sad tone of voice, she says "I'm sorry Nitori. It looks like you were wrong about him."

The realization hits Nitori hard, but before she can react, she turns to look at Agava, grabs her by her shoulders, and shouts "Ail!"

* * *

Inside the magical fish tank-like arena, there is only a few inches left before the water covers the entire arena up to its top and drowns Ail inside.

Ail lifts his nose and mouth over the water as best he can, taking deep breaths of air while thinking "dammit, to think it would end like this. No, I can't give up... Maybe I can survive if I try that..."

Taking another deep breath, Ail starts glowing, causing the water to glisten, then takes the shape of a purple fish with brown hair on its head, and fins that look like glowing dragon-shaped wings.

Though weird-looking, Ail hopes he can now breath underwater and tries using his gills.

He suddenly turns back to normal and swims up to take another deep breath of what little air is left, then suddenly chuckles and thinks "dammit, guess I still have lungs! Budou, Sanae... I'm sorry!"

Just like that, Ail gives up and lets himself float underwater, letting the air inside him escape through his mouth.

The water fills up the gigantic magical tank, and just then, Ail smiles as he feels he's losing his consciousness.

He closes his eyes to think back on his life, then hears the distant voice of a woman, saying "got you!", and the subtle feeling of being held by his arms.

He slowly opens his eyes and notices he's high above the snow-covered ground and moving fast, and just as he realizes this, he coughs out a lot of water and takes many desperate breaths of air.

He looks behind him and notices the magical arena slowly opening up and spilling the water inside of it at a safe rate.

A very familiar voice causes Ail to look up and realize he has been rescued by Aya, who says to him "you stupid half youkai! You should be more like Rinnosuke and live peacefully somewhere. Don't you know I'd miss you if you just disappear?"

Ail smiles widely, and after his Yozoragan limit deactivates because of his exhaustion, he casually says "I've been trying to, but every time I sit my butt, someone comes and kicks me back on my feet."

Aya and Ail share a quick laugh, then Aya just stops laughing, frowns while looking forward, then sadly says "I'm sorry. The girls told me what I did. I'm not sure why I would do that to you. It's that **creep** I got a bone to pick with."

Ail smiles tenderly and says "it's alright. I overreacted a little too, but I know you didn't mean it."

Aya looks down and smiles at Ail, then flaps her newly grown wings for him to see.

Ail smiles wider and says "you recovered quicker than we expected."

Aya chuckles and replies "you idiot, you just healed me and haven't even realized it. These grew just now."

Ail smiles and replies "no wonder my blood limit shut off on its own."

Aya looks down at Ail and asks "why do you call it a 'blood limit'?"

Ail looks at Aya with a bit of confusion in his eyes, then says "that's what miss Rika calls it. She has more experience with these matters, so I'm just following her lead."

Ail suddenly looks back and realizes the village is in danger, yet is unable to break free from Aya's grip and asks "where are you taking me? The village's in danger."

Aya looks down again, this time with a stern frown, then says "you left Budou and that green maiden for three days already. Besides, it's not like you can help as you are."

Ail looks away with an embarrassed look on his face, then nods and says "hai... I believe you are right."

Aya smiles as she looks toward the Moriya Shrine, then says "we're almost there. Sorry it took so long, but I'm yet to fully recover."

Ail looks up at Aya's face with a half smile, then Aya suddenly adds "but I'm still in better shape than you, so rub that smirk off, mister!"

Ail twitches after that statement, but finds no way to defend himself, so he just sighs and quietly waits to reach the shrine.

* * *

At the Human Village, hell has taken over the usually peaceful settlement.

Guzman's fiery disks and Mokou's fire have turned the eastern side of the village into hell, almost all the houses burning while Guzman continues his assault, ignoring the pain of the many danmaku bullet wounds on his arms and face, and ignoring the scorching heat from the burning houses all around him.

Mokou flies straight at Guzman, aiming to end it all with a fiery punch on the man's neck, but Guzman's monstrous fairy is back on her feet, and she jumps on Mokou and immediately uses her claws to open large gashes on Mokou's abdomen.

Keine flies above the flames and shouts "Mokou, don't be so reckless!", then claps her hands together, causing a shower of massive bullets to rain down on Guzman.

The human smiles at Keine's attempt, then notices Luna to her left and Medicine to her right, both adding their own bullets into the shower, but instead of frightening the human, he finds this pleasing and laughs as though seeing the funniest scene in his life.

He grabs both ends of his mirror cloak, and with a smile on his face, he shouts "if that's the best you got you best give up and accept death!"

He turns around and stretches the cloak until it gets stiff, then the cloak itself attracts the bullets straight at itself, then bounces all the bullets back at the girls.

The three girls start screaming instructions at each other, giving Guzman something more to laugh about, but his fun is cut short when something hard and blunt strikes the right side of his face, sending him spinning in the air, losing the bag on his shoulder before falling to the wet ground.

Kyo stands tall, cracking his knuckles while looking down at Guzman and threateningly saying "you've got some guts returning here after what you've done. Now stand. Unlike you, I rather fight with honor."

Guzman slowly pushes himself up, cleaning the bit of blood off his lip with his right forearm, then subtly bites down on his ring to activate it, and in a flash he's fighting it out with Kyo, who surprisingly manages to keep up with the vile human, even though he no longer possesses his amplifier.

A left punch, a right kick, and uppercut, a spin-kick, a sweep, and finally a straight kick sends Guzman flying straight into one of the burning houses, leaving Kyo with a satisfied smile on his face, but the smile doesn't last.

Guzman isn't screaming, which worries Kyo into thinking he might be elsewhere, making him frown as he looks all around himself.

To his surprise, Guzman slowly walks out of the fire, covered in flames, yet not even flinching from the pain.

Guzman stares straight at Kyo as he flicks the flames off his shoulders, arms and his face, then unsheathes the combat knife.

Meanwhile, Agava and Rumia beg Nitori to do something, but the little kappa just stands in complete shock, observing everything Guzman has done with her inventions.

Rumia pulls her to the left and shouts "come on, do something kappa-girl! Those are your inventions, right?"

Agava shakes Nitori hard and shouts "wake up girl, or there's gonna be no village left to save!"

Nitori continues to stare at Guzman, then whispers "no... no resort... friend... I didn't."

Agava groans with frustration while face palming, then loudly says "fine, guess **I'll **have to do it!"

Without wasting a second, Agava turns into a shadow blob and rushes toward Kyo, and just as Guzman comes in range to stab him, Agava sucks Kyo down a shadow hole and sends him back several feet through another shadow hole.

Before Guzman can realize what happened, Agava shouts "Shadow Morph!", takes the shape of a large snake, then wraps herself over Guzman's shadow, crushing his ribs and squeezing the air right out of his lungs.

Guzman grunts as he sees the image of the twin tailed girl in his mind, then Agava whispers to him "you think you are oh so evil, don't you? I could teach you a thing or two about evil if I wanted to, child. Like, for instance, how to crush your enemy's shadow and end his or her miserable little life in an instant."

She thinks Guzman will start begging for his pathetic life, but instead he surprises her as he starts to laugh, and although out of breath, he says "Agava, the terrifying shadow..."

He coughs out some blood, yet smiles as he continues "how can you crush a shadow that isn't here, I wonder?"

He manages to ignore the pain and grab his cloak to cover himself up, and after becoming invisible Agava yelps when her body twists like a coil, forcing her to reveal herself from the shadows and cancel her own spell.

She sits in a daze on the ground, wondering which way is left and which side is up, but long before she can regain her bearings, she feels a powerful hand grasp the back of her neck and lift her off the ground.

* * *

Later, after the snowstorm finally dies down, Ail and Aya land right in front of the Moriya Shrine.

Ail hugs himself and shivers violently as soon as he lands because his soaked clothes have frozen during their flight.

Aya looks at him with concern and asks "are you cold?"

Ail looks at Aya through the corner of his eyes and through chattering teeth, he sarcastically says "m-m-my clothes were s-s-soaking wet, and now they're f-f-f-frozen solid. No, I'm q-q-quite f-fine, thanks."

Aya smiles and says "oh, no problem then."

Suddenly, the shrine's front door opens, and Budou and Sanae come running straight at Ail, who smiles and says "B-B-Budou... S-Sanae, s-s-so glad to- GWAHK!"

Instead of the expected hugs and kisses greeting, Ail receives Budou's knees to his stomach, and Sanae's shoes on his face, the impact shattering his frozen tattered cloak and shirt to pieces, and after falling on the ground, his frozen pants crack and shatter.

Aya looks at the girls as though nothing has happened and casually says "so nice to see all is well."

Long before recovering, Ail finds himself being strangled by Sanae and having his legs twisted by Budou, Sanae angrily shouting "you idiot, do you know how worried we were?" and Budou shouting "idiot papa keeps worrying me! I'm gonna put you on time out! BAD PAPA!"

Aya watches as they try to kill Ail, then casually says "um, you shouldn't kill him. That... freak is at the village right now, and I think they need Ail's help over there."

As suddenly as they attacked, Budou and Sanae start hugging Ail and crying on his bare chest, Sanae crying "don't you do something so reckless, you stupid, stupid Ail-kun!", and Budou crying "and what if something happened to stupid papa! Don't do that ever again!"

Aya smiles and sweats as she says to herself "it's like I'm not even here."

Meanwhile, at the Hakurei Shrine, Minoriko and Shizuha put the finishing touches on an Aya doll made of straw.

Shizuha mumbles as she brushes the creation's hair, then smiles and says "there. It looks just like miss Aya."

Minoriko sweats, and with disbelief in her voice, she asks "are you sure about that, nee-san?"

The straw figure has a pair of painted white eyes with uneven black dots in the middle, a bit of lipstick on the straws themselves for lips, and a mop dyed in black for hair.

Shizuha scratches the right side of her head as a drop of sweat rolls down her cheek, then says "maybe if we made a hat."

The young goddesses scream when a pair of claws grab each by their shoulders, and a voice loudly says to both "that just won't work girls. Anyway, just forget about that and lets go. Rika-sama and mom need us!"

Shizuha and Minoriko look at each other, then tremble as they turn their heads to look behind themselves, and see Suzaku raising her wings an squawking loudly.

Minoriko and Shizuha calm down, then look at Suzaku and ask "but what can we do?"

Shizuha quickly adds "it's winter, and our powers are diminished. We're practically powerless", then Minoriko adds "we'll only get in the way."

The vermillion bird takes flight and tweets, and just as she reaches the door she says "you are gods, so start acting as such! Come on, open up and let's go already."

The young goddesses look at each other and gulp, then Minoriko steels herself, looks at Suzaku with courageous eyes, then says "come on nee-san! It's just like miss Kasen and Suzaku say. We are gods and should act like it!"

Shizuha takes a deep breath, stands up at the same time as Minoriko, then waits for her little sister and Suzaku to open the door before saying "alright then. Let's do our best to help out sis."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the fiery inferno that is the eastern side of the Human Village, Guzman holds on to Agava and uses her as a shield to protect himself from Reimu's and Rumia's bullets while trying to get to his black bag before it burns.

Agava tries to pull herself free from Guzman while shouting "let me go already, you jerk!"

Guzman quickly replies "shields are meant to be quiet, so just shut up, or I'll just kill you faster."

Agava growls and replies "are you deaf, or just retarded? I already told you, there's no way you can kill me."

Guzman clenches his teeth and speaks through them, saying "shut the hell up already", while squeezing the back of Agava's neck even harder.

The shadow youkai sighs and looks to her left with annoyance, then grabs her head with her hands, plucks it off, then turns it to Guzman and says "there, you see? Stab me, break me, flame me, I'll just come back, over and over and-"

Agava suddenly pops her head back in place, shouting "hey, what the heck?", while Guzman places his left hand on her chest and squeezes her with all his might.

Agava screams in pain as Guzman raises her above his head and turns around, then says "even **you** have some weakness. Say hi to that maiden for me!"

After saying this, Guzman throws Agava like a javelin, straight toward a thick cloud of smoke above a burning house, then smiles when he hears Reimu screaming "omph! Hey, what the hell is this?"

Rika shouts "my lady, what's wrong? I can't see with all this smoke!"

Agava shouts "oww~! That brute squeezed me like a stress ball!"

Luna adds "he's over here!"

Rumia playfully says "Agava is a big girl now~."

While the girls continue to bicker behind the smoke cloud, Guzman rushes to the bag, sliding on his knees, stopping next to it, and rummaging through it as fast as he can, pulling out one more disk, a black square that fits on his hand, and two mechanical spider-like creatures that crawl away as soon as he places them on the ground.

Guzman pockets the black square and the disk as fast as he can, then suddenly flies backward through the air, feeling a throbbing pain on the right side of his face.

He manages to flip, and lands on his left knee and right foot and slides to a stop just before falling straight into one of the burning houses again, and while rubbing his cheek, he smiles and says "too bad for you I don't intend to fight fairly."

Kyo stands tall with his energy sword and shield on hand, both white in color, and both looking like flaming weapons instead of solid ones, and pointing the sword at Guzman, Kyo says "I wasn't planning on fighting fair either!"

Kyo rushes straight at Guzman, ready to swing his sword all the way from his left, but doesn't notice the vile man sneers while holding on to his plastic explosive.

By the time Kyo notices the vile smile on Guzman's face, the coward has already thrown the explosive into the fire and Kyo only has enough time to cover his face with his shield before the powerful explosion sends him flying backward, screaming in pain after his right leg gets burned by the blast.

After the explosion, Reimu, Luna, Rumia, Agava and Rika notice a large chunk of the fire site has died out, and doesn't take them long to find Kyo lying on his back with his right leg bleeding on the ground.

Luna panics and screams "Kyo~! I'm coming for you!", as she flies down, followed quickly by Rika and Reimu.

The shrine maiden tries to grab Luna's dress, but misses and shouts "you idiot, not on your own!", then she and Rika chase after her.

Rika quickly shouts "my lady, use your whistle! We need mister Ail's help!"

Right after landing next to Kyo, Reimu watches with horror as he groans in pain, his leg bleeding without stopping, yet still there.

Luna desperately calls for Kyo, who tries to remain conscious, saying "I'm here, I'm here! Look at me! Stay with me! We'll get help! Someone please HELP!"

Without waiting any longer, Reimu reaches underneath her shirt, pulls the familiar golden whistle, then immediately blows on it, making a loud tweet that echoes all over the village, getting Medicine's and Mokou's attention.

When Medicine notices Kyo's condition, she gasps with horror, then shouts "you big fat lummox, what did you do~?"

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Moriya Shrine, Ail sleeps away, wearing a pink shirt picked for him by Sanae, and his usual black pants and pair of boots, while Budou brushes his hair with her fingers and Phredia continues to shower him with glistening magic sparks that turn golden when they touch his aura, though this effect can only be seen by Budou and Phredia.

While this happens, Sanae and Aya sit with Suwako under the kotatsu, and while Suwako happily eats the dumplings Sanae prepared, Aya says "I want to go to that village, grab that guy by his jewels, and have him beg for mercy long before I let him go."

Sanae looks at Aya with fear and concern, then Suwako lifts her finger to say some words of wisdom, but Aya herself beats the goddess to it, saying "but I know I can't. Just the thought of that man makes me shiver, and somehow... in the end, all I could accomplish is make others worry. I need to recover from this!"

Suwako smiles, then says "ah, that's using the brain, miss tengu. But I wonder, what if you were forced to make the choice right now?"

Both Aya and Sanae stare at Suwako with confusion, then Sanae asks "lady Moriya, what are you saying there?"

Aya blinks while absorbing Suwako's comment, then asks "why do you ask?"

Suwako smiles mischievously while pointing behind the girls at Ail, then says "because _sleeping-kun_ is being summoned, and if I'm guessing this right, he's going to the village."

Aya and Sanae gasp and turn around to see Budou and Phredia pulling on the snoring Ail's leg as he is being swallowed up by a swirling purple gap while Budou shouts "papa needs more rest! Mama, help me!"

Sanae and Aya spring to their feet and rush toward Budou, and while Sanae grabs Budou by her waist, Aya grabs Sanae by her waist, then both pull as hard as they can, just to get forcefully sucked into the swirling gap.

Suwako chuckles and quietly takes a sip of her tea, but before she can take a bite of another dumpling, Kanako reveals herself hiding behind the wall to the rooms corridor.

From the other side of the wall, and with a smile on her face, Kanako asks "so you're not going to help?"

Suwako's smile vanishes under a stern frown, and in a low tone of voice, as she slowly sets the dumpling back on the plate, she says "you know we can't intervene, no matter how badly we may want to stop it."

Kanako chuckles, then says "that's going to hurt them."

Suwako sighs, manages to smile, then says "at first, like always."

They pause for a moment, then Kanako sighs and says "I'll go get things ready. I'm sure he won't take it well."

* * *

Back at the village, Ail, Budou, Phredia, Aya and Sanae fall right out of the swirling gap before it closes, and all gently drop on the ground on their feet, except for Ail, who is still sleeping, blissfully unaware of what's happening.

Budou and Aya both cling on to Sanae after realizing the situation they are in, and understandably annoyed, Sanae asks "Reimu, what the hell is going on here?"

Before Reimu answers, Medicine uses some poison in Kyo's leg in an attempt to soothe the pain, while Luna wraps it in bandages, yet he still groans in pain and wakes Ail up in a panic.

After springing on his feet and flinging his arm around before finally waking up, Ail looks around himself and notices the burning houses, the burned bodies of two villagers, then looks to his right to see Kyo slowly sitting up while Medicine scolds him for being careless.

Reimu approaches him and says "it's him, and he's got a friend. He managed to taint a fairy and is using her."

Ail starts taking deep breaths as his rage escalates, then Rika, who is in her Soraogan mode, looks around and says "there are too many energies, but I'm sure I can find him."

Again, Ail takes a look at Kyo and feels like something has erupted inside the pit of his stomach, and the boiling raging sensation reaches his head, causing him to activate his Yozoragan mode.

Enraged, he shouts "When I find him, I'm going to kill him! Reimu, do NOT interfere!"

Reimu remains quiet, and simply nods at Ail.

Agava rushes to Ail, tugs his shirt, then cries "you make him hurt before you kill him! He squeezed me hard, that bastard!"

Ail recovers his usual self, looks at Agava, then notices her increased bust size, points at her chest, and casually says "hey, wait a minute. I don't remember you having those."

Agava jumps on his head and pulls on his hair while nervously laughing and shouting "you little winged pervert! That's absolutely none of your business!"

As if nothing is happening, Ail scowls and angrily asks "and since when did you get fifty percent of your power unlocked, young-old lady?"

Agava stops her attack, twitches, and while slithering off Ail's back, she laughs nervously and asks "so, er... you noticed? H-how?"

Ail smiles and replies "thanks to Budou, I can see your energy very clearly with these eyes."

Reimu quickly adds "it's no secret to me. I had a word with Rumia after that. Still, after all this time, now, after this human destroyed the village, NOW is when you decide to help. Why?"

Agava stammers, rushes to hide behind Sanae, Budou and Aya, then says "I'm sorry. It's just that I didn't think it was that important... I mean, until I met that Nitori kappa girl!"

Reimu gasps and walks rapidly toward the frightened Agava to ask about Nitori, but stops and face palms when she hears an insane, loud and somewhat malevolent cackle from a familiar girl.

All those on the ground look up to the sky and see Shinki, Mai, Luize and Yuki, who continues to cackle for some reason, shouting "muahaha~! Fire~! More fire~!"

Shinki smiles angelically as she gets closer to Yuki, strikes the back of her head with her fist, then gently says "now sweetheart, we're here to help, not cause more trouble."

Yuki holds the back of her head as a large bump pulsates on it, then she smiles and stick out her tongue, casually saying "oops, sorry mom. I'll be good."

Just like that, Yuki dives and lands in front of the nearest burning house, and immediately pulls out a spell card and shouts "Cooking Under the Moon~!"

Reimu shouts "wait a minute you lunatic, you're going to-", but her words fail to reach the black fire witch.

Yuki summons two large fireballs to her left and right, then makes them expand until they are both twice her size, and instead of sending them toward a target, she moves her arms to clap her hands, then the fireballs follow this movement, crash against each other, and explode with such force, even Rika and Ail have trouble keeping on their feet.

Finally, Yuki flies backward through the air all the way back until she hits a dead tree, and after she coughs, Ail shouts "Yuki, what in blazes where you thinking? Look at what you did!"

Rika loudly says "wow, she's really good! Look at that!"

When Ail, Reimu and everyone else turn to look toward the fire, they notice Yuki managed to blow a good chunk of it out, and with surprise in her tone, Reimu says "well, will you look at that. She actually did good."

Yuki mysteriously stands next to Reimu, expands her chest with pride, strikes herself with her fist, and with a wide smile, she says "I'm a specialist on fire. I know what I'm doing."

Budou smiles quietly while she smacks some flames off form Yuki's skirt, then she and everyone else look up to the sky with awe in their faces when rain starts falling, even though Guzman's trinket continues to make it look sunny.

Before long, the village is overrun be wolf tengu on the ground and crow tengu in the sky, one pack being led by Momiji, who shouts "do not let him escape! Make sure all exits are covered!"

Aya quickly approaches Momiji and asks "what's going on?"

Momiji suddenly jumps on Aya and gives her a tight hug while saying "Aya, you're awake! Orders from Lord Tenma! We are to assist in that man's capture, or execution!"

Hatate lands behind Aya, and trying to sound casual, she says "glad to see you on your feet", then looks at Rika, gasps with excitement, then says "Rika-sis! I'm here to help!"

Reimu suddenly asks "so you made it rain?", to which Momiji stares with confusion, then says "no, that would be the kappa."

Ail, Reimu and Rika start looking all around themselves, and each can both sense and see the kappa all around them in pairs, most using optical camouflages to hide while handling some tiny black towers.

* * *

Reimu is amazed by the sight.

Tenshi flies down from the heavens with Spee, Suwako's former shadow self, Girlie, Shinki's former shadow self, and Iku, along with Byakuren, Ichirin, Unzan and Nazrin, all picking up villagers and taking them toward the Myouren Temple. Meanwhile, on the southern side of the village, Shou, Minamitsu and Nue help some white wolf tengu fight off some strange ghost-like images of Guzman, who are as deadly as the original.

At the center of the village, Keine, Kasen, Maribel, Renko and Mokou are joined by the Aki sisters, and with some effort, they keep the villagers safe from some white orb bullets that keep appearing out of nowhere from the sky or behind some of the houses.

At the western area, Suika, Mima, Remilia, Flandre and Sakuya chase after the ghostly images of the tainted fairy, which mostly break down walls on the villager's houses for no apparent reason other than to cause fear, and at the northern area are Marisa, Yuugi, Alice and Orin, making sure the fleeing villagers in that area are safe from attacks.

Reimu takes flight to get a better look at what is happening around the village, then quickly comes down with a smile and says "this is almost like that time we were after you, Agava."

The shadow youkai blushes as she looks away from Reimu, then says "geez, don't remind me of that."

Ail pats Agava on the head, then says "well, this time we actually have you on _our_ side, as well as the Myouren Temple and Makai."

Ail suddenly face palms hard, then exclaims "Kyo! Sorry, I almost forgot! Geez, I'm such an airhead!"

Ail rushes to Kyo and kneels beside his friend, who is being held up on his seat by Luna and Medicine, then Kyo smiles and says "you idiot, that's why I had to take care of you before, remember?"

Ail chuckles, then quickly turns a stern face, closes his eyes, then places his left wing on Kyo's leg, managing to stop the bleeding, though the pain is still there, evident when Kyo asks "what are you doing there, bud?", then tries to move his leg, only to end up groaning and wincing with pain.

Ail sighs as he removes his wing, then says "it's a lot harder with you. You are human, and if I heal you too quickly, there could be complications."

Kyo, though in pain, manages to smile and chuckle, then say "I'll be fine. I've been through much worst."

Ail smiles, even though seeing his friend like that makes him want to cry, then nods and says "right. You'll pull through."

Meanwhile, Rika and the pack of white wolf tengu, including Momiji, search the burned debris for possible survivors, and to everyone's surprise, the wolf tengu report everything to Rika as though she was their leader, all while wagging their tails to her.

Momiji bows her head to Rika, wags her tail, then says "don't worry miss Rika. If we find anything, we'll report to you immediately."

Rika smiles and gently scratches the back of Momiji's left ear, causing Momiji to squeal softly, then says "thank you very much. You know, you remind me of the wolfs back home."

Suzaku finally reaches Rika, saying "master, I finally found you! You are very mean, leaving me in the room and taking off like that!", and lands on Rika's shoulder, then Aya suddenly sprouts her wings, bears her teeth, and glares with intense hatred toward Rika.

The shrine maid gulps when she notices, but before she can ask, she turns around to see Guzman standing on one of the burned roofs with the blue-skinned fairy to his right, and holding a crying child, the same human child that found his first hat, gripping him tightly by the back of his neck.

Rika gasps at the sight and instinctively unsheathes her sword, points it at Guzman, then shouts "PUT HIM DOWN!"

Ail springs on to his feet and summons two sharp-looking scimitars made of light, then says "Budou, Sanae..."

Budou quickly replies "I'm not running away!", and Sanae adds "we're not weak! We can help!"

Ail chuckles and nods, then casually says "I was going to ask you to paralyze him for me while Sanae and I beat him up."

Budou, Phredia and Sanae look back at Ail with surprise, but quickly smile and rush beside him.

Yuki prepares a fireball on her hand and starts throwing it to the air with one hand and catching it with the other, while saying "finally, the vile human in everyone's lips."

Before long, the Makaians, the angels, Tenshi, Iku, the tengu and the kappa surround the area, all eager to put an end to Guzman, but unable to do so without risking the life of the crying child.

Reimu points at Guzman, and with a stern face, an intense look of powerful rage in her eyes, and with a calm tone of voice, she says "let the child go and accept the consequences of your actions. This world is against you, and no matter where you run now, we will hunt you down."

Guzman laughs, then suddenly drops to his knees after seeing the image of the young brown haired girl in his mind.

Everyone open their eyes wide with expectation after seeing this moment to get the child, but Guzman is already holding his knife against the little child's chest, going as far as cutting a small opening in his skin, causing him to cry out loud and call for his mother and father as some blood stains his dark blue shirt.

Rika grinds her teeth when she sees this, but can't move an inch for fear of the child's life, and the little blue-skinned fairy, though tainted, gets frightened at the sight, regaining some of her old innocence.

Guzman raises his smiling face, then chuckles and says "the world was never on my side, I just forced it to do things my way, as I am doing now. You will all back off, or I'll kill this child."

Rika's pupils start glowing red, showing her rage as it swells up inside of her, and while she points her trembling sword at Guzman, she speaks through her teeth with a snarl, saying "you will let him go, NOW!"

Guzman smiles as he stares at Rika, then says "you dare threaten me, you devil? Fine, I'll just do this, and..."

Guzman raises the combat knife, aiming it at the child's heart, making him cry out for his mother and father with despair.

This causes many unpleasant memories to surface in Rika's mind; countless children left orphaned because of the war in her world, all crying out for their parents, but they would never come.

Rika remembers the pain she felt at those times, and before she knows it, she activates her quicksilver, gaining the two extra set of wings, and in an instant, she's thrusting her sword through the right side of Guzman's chest with such force, he is sent flying backward after the sword's hand guard strikes him, sending him crashing against a tree that miraculously doesn't break, even though the impact causes Guzman to spit out some blood.

* * *

Aya is the first to notice Rika's move, then rushes after her to attack, grabbing a hold of Guzman as he bounces of the tree, and with hatred in her face, she grabs him by his throat and throws him to the air, where she reveals her fan hidden under her shirt and sends a small tornado that seems to be made of blades that cut through the man's skin in several places.

Afterward, Aya readies herself under Guzman and her tornado, and the moment it dies out, she times her move right and kicks Guzman higher to the air with a wind kick, then the other crow tengu go after him with their spears and cutting winds spells.

Meanwhile, down on the ground, Rika hugs the frightened and sobbing child, rubbing his back while softly saying "there, it's alright. I got you now. Shh, shh, it's alright now."

The little blue fairy stares at Rika and the child, feeling both the impulse to attack and kill, and the urge to run away and leave them be.

She makes her choice, hisses as she opens her mouth and raises her hands to attack, but someone grabs her by her shoulder to stop her, and when she looks back, she watches as Shou closes her eyes, causing her hand to glow light blue, then the fairy falls asleep on the ground.

Rika starts healing the child, looks at Shou, then asks "can she be restored?"

Shou nods and says "it's going to take some time, but it can be done."

Meanwhile, Ail joins the tengu and flies by Guzman, slashing him with his swords of light, then is followed by Reimu, who shouts "Divine Spirit, Fantasy Seal!", as she flies by, letting her five large colorful orbs strike Guzman hard, pushing him upward and keeping him in the air.

After Reimu, Sanae and Budou fly by, and Budou opens her mouth to let out a paralyzing shriek that surrounds Guzman's body, while Sanae draws a red pentagram with her gohei that acts like a saw as it goes through Guzman and burns his skin.

Fireballs start exploding on the back of the man, making him groan with each hit, and Yuki simply cackles manically as she sends the last fireball at him while jumping on the ground.

After the last fireball hits, the wolf tengu jump toward Guzman as he start to fall, and either use a sword, their bare claws, or their teeth to inflict damage, and finally, Kyo, held by Luna and Medicine, fly toward Guzman and with Medicine's help, he thrusts his sword through Guzman's back and pushes it all the way through his abdomen, then Medicine adds some poison into the open wound, while Luna takes the chance and shoots some colorful kunai bullets at Guzman's head.

After the assault is over, Guzman finally falls lifeless on the ground with ruined clothes, including the cut and tattered mirror cloak, full of cuts and staining the ground underneath him with his own blood, and still, everyone keeps their eyes on him.

* * *

While this happens, Agava and Rumia are searching for Nitori, looking through the place where they last saw her.

Agava loudly calls "kappa girl, you have to do something!"

Rumia shouts "you told us you can stop him! Do so already!"

Agava grabs Rumia by her shoulder, shushes her, then points to their left.

Rumia doesn't see anything, but after paying close attention, she can hear some faint crying.

They walk closer to a secluded part between many dead trees, where the snow still covers the ground, then find a barely visible image of Nitori, who covers her eyes as she cries as softly as she can.

When she realizes she's been spotted, she wipes her face with her forearms, stands up, then looks at her allies with sadness and says "get away... now!"

Agava and Rumia both look sadly at Nitori, trying to get closer while Agava says "we just want to help."

Nitori glares at the girls, pushes a button on the center clip between the straps of her backpack, then Agava and Rumia both gasp with fright as a blinding light consumes the little kappa, and then themselves.

While this light continues to shine, Nitori thinks "he was going to kill that kid. I guess it's true what I heard about that tengu after all. Tch, I was such a fool. No more. I may not want to, but I have no choice. I have to stop him before he kills again."

Meanwhile, back at the burned site, where what's left of the houses are piles of burned wood, the tengu and kappa keep their eyes and weapons pointed at Guzman's body while Aya loudly says "careful! That ring is still healing him, so he's still alive. Do NOT let him fool you!"

Farther away, Rika cries along with the rescued child and his mother, while she and her son cry at the loss of the father.

Reimu places a comforting hand on Rika's left shoulder, while Suzaku rubs her face against Rika's right cheek.

Rika sniffles, then says "j-just like home, mi-miss Reimu. I-I couldn't do anything. That... that tainted fairy killed his..."

Suzaku quickly says "master, don't think like that", then Reimu gently says "you saved that child's life and helped in finally ending that man's deadly game. Besides, he's not really orphaned, and you saved his mother from a terrible pain."

Rika smiles, though still sobs, then places her left hand on Reimu's own, her right hand on Suzaku's head, then says "y-you're right. It... it'll be fine."

To their left, Ail, Budou and Sanae join in a group hug, while Medicine, Luna and the limping Kyo approach them, all with smiles on their faces.

Kyo strikes Ail's back in a friendly manner with the palm of his hand, making his friend lose his balance, then says "once Eirin fixes me up, you and I will have a sparring match. I want to test those swords of yours against my own."

Ail chuckles, then says "you just get better. We'll talk about sparring after that."

Luna sighs, placing her hand on her chest, then says "just don't go overboard. I don't want to see this idiot hurt again!"

Medicine softly kicks Kyo's left leg, then says "stupid lummox, making us worry like that!", then looks at Su-San with a scowl and asks "right Su-San?"

Su-San blinks once, as though acknowledging Medicine's statement, then causes all around her to laugh.

Behind them, Yuki plays around with a large fireball as though it were a volleyball, while Tenshi, Spee and Girlie watch with amazement.

Tenshi runs closer to Yuki, and says "hey, pass it over here!"

Without thinking about it, Yuki makes the fireball bounce to the air toward Tenshi, saying "here you go. Show me what you got!"

Tenshi positions her hands the same way as Yuki and smiles as the ball of fire falls down, but her smile suddenly vanishes and is replaced by wonder.

The celestial starts rubbing her own chin with her right hand while she thinks, then says "wait, I don't know how to handle fireballs..."

Spee suddenly shouts "careful you idiot, it's coming-", but it's too late, and Tenshi screams loudly when the fireball ignites her body.

The celestial runs around in circles while Yuki rolls on the ground, laughing hard, then Spee flaps her wings in a desperate attempt to blow the flames off the burning celestial, but it's not after freezing water falls over Tenshi's head that the fire douses.

While Tenshi shivers and Spee looks around for the source of the fire, Girlie and Iku slowly fly down, holding a bucket, Iku with a concerned face, while Girlie smiles and says "need backup plans for these crazy celestial types, eh?"

Shinki now holds Yuki by her ear and threatens the terrorized makaian with a pink ribbon while smiling and saying "sweetie, now is really not the time for this."

Yuki can only wave her arms and scream "I'm sorry, please don't punish me~!"

There is a sudden bang and bright flash from some nearby trees that gets everyone's attention, and while they look toward the flash of light, there is a loud buzzing sound, similar to Marisa's Master Spark, accompanied by the loud screams from the tengu, who are sent flying through the air along with a bright and thick rainbow beam that burns their clothes off and burns their skins after just touching them.

When they all turn to look, they find Guzman standing with a compact bazooka-like weapon, laughing hard and shooting the insanely powerful rainbow beam at anyone or anything that gets his attention, and after looking at Rika, he points at her and shouts "I cannot die yet! Not before I take YOU and Ail FIRST!"

He fires his weapon, which flies fast toward Rika, then they hear Marisa shouting "Master Spark!", and getting in the way of the beam before it hits Rika.

Marisa's own beam gets swallowed up by Guzman's beam with ease, but she doesn't notice in time, so Reimu shouts "MARISA MOVE!", and Marisa jumps away just before the beam touches her, leaving a large and deep hole where Marisa was standing on.

All gasp at the sight of that beam's power and quickly realize the danger they are truly in, and just as Guzman shoots again, Rika grabs Reimu, and with Suzaku's help, they manage to jump safely away from the beam.

Again Guzman fires, this time aiming at Yuki and Shinki, and even though Shinki manages to jump away with Yuki, the beam catches her left foot and burns it right off, causing her to scream loudly and fall on the ground with Yuki, who screams "mom! Mom, what happened? ...**Shinki!**"

The goddess of Makai can only groan and hold her left leg while clenching her eyes and teeth, then manages to say "i-it's ok. It'll heal!"

Ail gasps and shouts "we have to stop him!"

Spee and Girlie fly straight at Guzman, trying to be as quiet as they can as they glare at their target, but Guzman squeezes the trigger and the beam consumes the two angels in an instant, disintegrating their bodies and leaving only two orbs of light.

The one on the left, being Spee's light, sighs and says "oh great, it's gonna take a while to get our bodies back!", to which Girlie groans and says "but I want to help now~!"

Guzman fires the weapon again, aiming it straight at Budou, and both Ail and Sanae, even though Phredia has the little bat youkai surrounded by a shield, manage to jump and push her out of the way and save her and themselves just in time.

Luna has both her swords unsheathed and is ready to attack, raising the right sword with the intention of throwing it, but Guzman is already shooting at her long before she can throw the sword.

She watches as the beam rapidly gets closer to her, and stands frozen on the spot. Kyo shouts "MOVE~!", though his voice sounds muffled to her.

Ignoring the pain on his leg, Kyo runs toward Luna, and pushes her out of the way just as the beam flies through, striking him instead, his bloody scream echoing all over the village, reaching all the way to Keine's school and causing all his friends there to feel as though lead has clogged their hearts.

* * *

After that final shot, Guzman roars and raises the gun to the air, firing wildly while shouting "I dare any one of you to come and get me now! I'll erase you from this false existence in a flash."

Ail and Rika activate their blood limit as they stand up and glare at Guzman.

They look at each other, nod, then bend their bodies as though synchronized, and prepare to attack, but both stop when Luna screams out loud "**no~! Wake up! Kaizo, wake up!**", and Medicine cries "you stupid human, wake up!"

Rika stops to look, and gasps at the sight, while Ail trembles violently as he slowly turns his eyes, then his head, then his body, to look at Kyo.

Kaizo Yumeda, Ail's best friend, who survived many adversities that no other human would have survived, too care of Ail and himself in many occasions, now lies lifeless on the ground with Luna crying to his right and desperately shouting his name, and Medicine and Su-San looking desperate to his left, holding their own faces to prevent themselves from touching Kyo.

Both shirts have been burned off, leaving the skin on his upper body bare, bearing a black mark all over his torso and arms.

Meanwhile, Shizuha and Minoriko make their way behind Guzman, keeping low to the ground, and once they are in range, Minoriko grabs on to Guzman's legs while Shizuha grabs on to his head and covers his eyes, preventing him from shooting the deadly beam at Ail.

To Ail, the world seems to be moving in slow motion, watching as the little energy left in his friend's body slowly rises to the heaven, unaware of the events unfolding around him.

Reimu quickly reaches Kyo's body, forces Luna away from him, then places a charm on his chest, causing Kyo's energy to return to his body, though at a very slow rate.

Sanae rushes to Reimu's side and shouts, but Ail cannot hear what is going on around him.

All he can hear is an endless silence, and all he can see now, as he turns around, is Guzman, as though the man himself is a target, not noticing the goddesses of Autumn as the vile human kicks Minoriko away, then grabs Shizuha by her leg and flings her off him, tossing her toward her little sister.

Guzman looks toward the light and realizes it turned into a large dome made of a net of electric sparks, and it's slowly heading his way.

He panics, activates his flying boots, his ring, then flies away so fast, the remaining tengu and kappa don't have the chance to stop him.

Ail is about to give chase on his own, but feels a warm hand gently set itself on his left shoulder.

He turns to look at Rika's determined eyes, and the sound of desperate screams, hurried chatter and rapid thumping of feet on the ground finally reach him, as well as the buzzing sound of the electric dome that makes its way through all, but causes no effect on them.

Rika takes her hand off Ail and says "Suzaku, stay here and help Reimu. Ail, let's finish this already."

Ail looks with determination at Rika and nods, then surrounds himself with a black flame, while Rika surrounds herself with a white flame.

Reimu raises her head when Suzaku lands on her shoulder, and watches as Ail and Rika surround themselves with the black and white flames, then watches with amazement when they take flight and form a spinning yin-yang symbol in the air as they head toward the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, chasing after Guzman.

As they leave, the electric dome speeds up and covers the rest of the village, shutting off the ghostly copies of Guzman and the fairy, stopping the white bullets that came out of nowhere, revealing tiny spiders that were clinging on to roofs, walls and branches, and finally, shuts off the artificial sun generator, allowing winter to enter the village, as it should.

Reimu sighs, then rubs her own head while saying "now all we need is to get Kyo to Eirin. I'm sure she'll be able to fix him up. Huh?"

Reimu and Suzaku turn their attention to the sky, watching as a little star takes flight toward the Bamboo forest, chasing after Ail and Rika.

Reimu gulps, and while looking to the forest, she says "I have a very terrible feeling in my heart."

Suzaku tweets and rubs her face against Reimu's then says "it's all going on divine order, mom."

Reimu lets out a weak smile, but decides not to say anything, and instead turns to look at Marisa uses her broom to make a flying stretcher for Kyo.

Suddenly, Reimu gasps and remembers Iku's words, playing them inside her mind "_a great calamity is to befall in the form of a weak soul with great strength and powers through curses beyond comprehension, though these curses were meant to be blessings. Before this soul returns to the lost path, he shall hurt all that surround a greater soul, striking them all with unbearable pain._"

Reimu suddenly holds her chest as though unable to breathe and tears start flowing on their own.

Suzaku squawks and asks "mom, what's the matter?"

Reimu speaks, though she is only able to whisper to herself as she says "she warned us and I didn't understand. You warned me and I didn't understand. What... what the hell is wrong with me?"

Suzaku lands underneath Reimu to look at her in the eyes, then says "mom, predictions aren't warnings, but signs, so that you can be ready for what is to come. Don't blame yourself for this mom. It's all in divine order! Please trust me."

Reimu takes a few breaths of air to calm herself down, then finally relaxes enough to sit on her knees and watch as the snow starts falling from the sky, dancing around as though all is right in the world, and all is as it should be.

* * *

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenarios belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Agava, Kyo, Luna, Budou, Phredia, Spee and Girly were created by Willie G.R.

Ail's Spell Cards:

Mad Waves, Raging Waves, and

Brightness, Overwhelming Heart;

Agava's Spell Card:

Shadow Morph;

Yuki's Spell Card:

Cooking Under the Moon;

Were created by Willie G.R.

Rika Onkamikami and Suzaku were created by Snapshot 2010

NOV 2 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**This is it. The final stretch to the end. Thank you all for reading this far.**


	17. Chapter 17

The east side of the Human Village resembles a derelict wasteland.

Most of the houses have burned down to the ground, while the few that remain standing are either falling under the weight of the snow, or give off the impression of depressing sadness and abandonment.

No warm lights to illuminate through the windows of the cozy little homes that no longer serve their sheltering purpose.

All over the village, so many lives lost in such terrible ways as well, causing those spirits to wander in despair, unaware of what happened to them, although some are more resentful than others, attracting other wandering spirits to the east side of the village, slowly turning it into a small netherworld.

Reimu, Sanae, Phredia, Kasen, and Suzaku, all of them do their best to appease the lingering spirits of those recently killed, and exorcise those spirits that wander into the village, attracted by the lingering dead, and cause mischief around the few still usable houses neighboring the derelict site.

Meanwhile, Marisa, Alice, Keine and Mokou help create a special stretcher, using Marisa's broom, Alice's threads, and many warm materials to make it fly and keep Kyo warm.

Luna sits beside Kyo, next to Medicine and Su-San on the ground, all three with saddened faces, and Luna unable to hold back her tears after looking at Kyo's burned limp body.

Even though she's missing her left foot, Shinki kneels next to Luna and Medicine, trying to comfort them, along with Byakuren and Unzan, who seems most interested in comforting Medicine.

The little poisonous doll youkai sits on the ground next to Luna, and keeps staring at the snow as it piles on her feet, but unlike Luna, she doesn't even sob.

Unzan tries to whisper comforting words, but Medicine can't hear him, even though it appears Su-San does, so Unzan tries some funny faces, to at least cheer her up.

Medicine looks up at Unzan with contempt and angrily says "I'm not a kid, so stop that."

Unzan frowns, shrinks and slumps, and Su-San immediately pats his head to comfort _him_ instead.

Finally, Reimu approaches Budou, who stands behind Alice, trying to keep her sight away from Kyo.

Reimu kneels down and pats the little bat youkai's head and asks "I'm sorry, but could you tell me what you see now?"

Budou gulps, nods, then stares at Kyo for a few seconds and says "the silver is going up again."

She starts to sob and tears start running down her cheeks as she continues "large brother is going to the clouds!"

Reimu turns Budou around and embraces her, letting her cry away on her chest, then abruptly calls "Marisa, Alice!"

The two witches turn to Reimu, swipe some sweat off their own foreheads, then Marisa says "we just finished! Let's take him to the clinic, ze."

Mokou and Keine suddenly take to the sky while Keine says "we're going to keep looking for any more injured... or dead", flinching after that last word.

Alice, Shanghai and Hourai look up at the girls as they leave, then Alice sighs and says "that alien is going to have her hands full for a while."

Shanghai sighs, then says "ah, I hope miss Rika and mister Ail are alright."

Hourai sits on Alice's shoulder, then begins to sing softly, getting Sanae's, Phredia's, Suzaku's and Kasen's attention.

Once regrouped, Reimu loudly says "we have very little time. Sanae, I'll need you to stay with us. You're better at healing than I am."

Sanae nods, then grabs Budou as soon as she lets go of Reimu, returning Budou's embrace with a light pat on the head, while Phredia lands on the bat's shoulder and pats her ear.

Reimu stands up and looks around, then asks "what about you, hermit?"

Kasen looks around the village, then says "I'll stick around in case there are any more spirits causing trouble. Really, it's the last thing the humans need after all this."

Reimu nods, then looks at Shinki, who is being held up with help from Luize and Mai, then says "you better head home and rest."

Shinki looks with a longing face at Reimu, but sighs in defeat and says "alright. You heard her girls, it's time to go back home."

Yuki, who stands behind the makaians, kicks a bit of snow from the tip of her foot as she says "aww~! I wanted to cook the bad guy!"

By now, Alice, Marisa, Luna and Medicine have already placed Kyo on the hovering stretcher, and are on their way to the Bamboo Forest, along with the singing Hourai, who gets Reimu's attention.

When Reimu spots them, she face palms and says "man, they just can't wait. Come on, let's go!"

Suzaku squawks as she flies over to Luna, but before Reimu follows, Sanae asks "shouldn't we ask some of the tengu to come with us?"

Reimu remains silent as she starts following the others to the forest, quickly followed by Sanae, Phredia and Budou, and as soon as the girls catch up, she says "they still have unfinished business. If for some unfortunate reason Ail and Rika fail, th-... That Guzman has nowhere else to go. Let's just leave it at that."

Before they are completely out of reach, Reimu gasps as though remembering something, then, without even turning around, she loudly says "Byakuren, Shou~! If you can't handle that fairy, call for help! Just not me!"

Byakuren and Shou were just about to leave when Reimu shouts her instructions, and after hearing them out, Byakuren smiles sheepishly, scratches her left cheek, and as drop of sweat rolls down her left cheek, she says "my, she really is bossy and lazy. That's no good at all."

Unzan stares at Byakuren and Shou, then quietly nods.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, Guzman lands at a clearing that looks like a giant hourglass from the sky.

After landing, he breathes rapidly, as though desperate, while looking all around and trying, but failing to cover himself up with what's left of the tattered mirror cloak, pointing his Rainbow Gun to the sky, expecting unwanted company.

Inside his mind, the little brown haired girl, who looks more and more like Nitori, gets closer and closer to Guzman, smiling and snickering while extending her hand out to him and whispering "welcome home-home-welcome-home~!"

Guzman starts to grunt while holding his head as though in pain, causing all his cuts and claw wounds to bleed out and stain the snow under his feet.

Finally, he straightens up as if nothing ever happened, looks to the sky, then says "not yet. I can't go yet! The one that got away... he's coming! I have to take his life before that!"

The girl giggles in a playful manner and seems to run ahead toward a bright open door, then stops just under the doorway and playfully says "I'm waiting~!"

After that, Guzman takes off his mirror cloak and throws it to the ground, where it gets consumed into the snow and becomes part of the land.

Afterward, he takes the black box and remaining disk from his pocket, places the black box against a wall of bamboo, where it clings on to and stretches out to become a wide television screen that only shows static at the moment.

After that, he points the disk's polished side toward the sky and makes sure that as many snowflakes can land on it before touching the ground.

After a bit, the disk starts glowing in various colors; aquamarine, lilac, amaranth, dark blue and golden, all the colors waving around the inside of the disk on their own.

Guzman looks to the sky once more and spots Ail and Rika surrounded in a white and black flame, creating a giant yin-yang orb, both with their blood limits fully activated and looking ready for anything.

Guzman aims the Rainbow Gun to the sky and starts shooting at his pursuers, hoping to take either one down and level his chances.

From the sky, Ail and Rika spot Guzman, then Ail says "split up and land close!"

Rika nods and shouts back "we attack together!"

Ail nods, then they both split up just as the thick rainbow beam flies between them.

Ail manages to dodge three more beams, swaying left and right, then taking an abrupt dive.

Rika picks up her wings and starts swirling in the air, dodging the first beam, then takes an abrupt dive to avoid another beam.

Ail and Rika land at the same time, too close for Guzman to shoot without getting attacked by them.

Both Rika and Ail stand sideways and move as though synchronized, both now having a half white and half black flame that spin around each, Rika's clockwise, and Ail's counterclockwise.

They both point at Guzman, then Rika says "it's time you answered for you actions. For destroying this paradise and turning it into hell!"

As soon as Rika finishes, Ail says "I'll make you pay for what you did to my friends tenfold!"

Guzman smiles and bares his teeth in a most disturbing manner, then says "here they are, my two favorites. The demon maid and the one who got away. What a happy little reunion this is!"

Ail rapidly summons the two sharp scimitars of light, this time with wide hand guards, and Rika takes her Oath Keeper card, opens the golden gate, and in an instant, she is on the other side of the gate, holding both her family sword and thunder sword, crossing them while aiming their sharp edges at Guzman.

The vile human discretely activates his ring as he raises his arms in a welcoming manner, and while smiling some more, he says "this is why I like you so much. You don't monologue me! Well, it's kind 'a sad, but this is to be our last meeting. Today, the two of you will die, free from all the lies of this so-called reality."

Ail scoffs and says "and here I thought you were just killing for the heck of it. Now I know you are just a demented lunatic."

Guzman walks backward, getting closer to the television, then laughs and says "I'm just being a good little man and carrying out the will of the gods. They want us all free, but to be free, we... have... to... **die~!**"

Immediately after saying those words, Rika shouts "don't you dare try to justify yourself now! You are just a murderer, and you're just making excuses for yourself!"

Ail quickly adds "you murder people in the most inhumane of ways, torture them to their last breaths, just like you tried to do to me!"

Guzman chuckles, then turns around and pushes the disk into a small slot on the left side of the wide television, then turns around again and asks "why shouldn't I have some fun while doing my good deed? Why, when I was made to suffer so much, should I show mercy to the world? Why should I even care?"

The monitor shows an image of Guzman, just as he is, and from it, a multicolored beam rises to the sky and creates a wall of swirling energy of waving colors.

Ail grips his swords tighter, then whispers "we're trapped. Rika, we have to finish him now!"

Rika nods, but waits for Ail's move.

Guzman chuckles again, unsheathes the combat knife, points the Rainbow gun at Rika, then continues from before, asking "because life is precious? Because it's not moral? Bah~!"

After the monitor finishes creating the arena, matching the clearing's shape and creating a giant hourglass, two ghostly images of Guzman appear from the television and stand beside the real Guzman.

Ail and Rika gasp at the sight, both spread their wings, then Guzman places his purple glasses on and says "now it's a fair fight."

After those words, the two ghostly images take off and start attacking with a ghostly combat knife that proves to be quite lethal after cutting through Ail's shirt and leaving a thin cut on his abdomen.

Ail manages to push the ghostly image back with his swords and says "they are as deadly as him, so be careful!"

Rika is pushing back with all her might against the second copy's knife, then shouts. "These are actually stronger! Keep sharp!"

* * *

Ail and Rika fight with the ghostly images, or copies of Guzman, while the Real Guzman shoots them with the Rainbow Gun, and with deadly accuracy.

Rika finds herself jumping and rolling to avoid the wide beam and the copy's knife, while Ail uses the left sword to defend, jumps to the right to avoid the beam, then swings his right sword through the copy's abdomen, and although the copy fizzle for a moment, it continues to attack as if nothing happened.

Meanwhile, Rika swings her family sword downward, but is intercepted by the copy's knife, so Rika swings her thunder sword sideways and manages to cut its neck, though it only fizzles and continues to push back.

Rika grunts when the copy starts pushing her away with ease, so she crosses her thunder sword with her family sword to push back and shouts "Ail, what do we do?"

Ail swings his swords in combination, left sideways, right downward, double thrust, but the real Guzman is paying more attention to him and shooting beam after beam, forcing Ail to take evasive action over and over again.

Ail rolls on the ground to the left, avoiding one more beam, then raises his sword behind his head to block the copy's knife, then shouts "spells! It's our only hope!"

Rika manages to push the copy away and take a spell card out of her pocket, but Guzman notices the move and quickly shoots the rainbow beam at her, saying "not a chance!"

Rika manages to roll away but yelps when the tip of her left wing gets caught in the beam.

Ail roars with fury and pushes away the copy with all his might, sending it flying all the way back against the magical wall, then runs straight at Guzman and tries to thrust his sword on the man's neck.

Guzman manages to block the attack with his own knife, smiles at Ail, then says "now it's two against one."

Ail looks behind himself and quickly swings his second sword to intercept the copy's knife, then finds himself incapable of dodging the gun Guzman tries to point with some effort.

For a moment, Ail thinks it's all over, but he feels great relief and smiles when he hears Rika saying loudly "Thunder Sign, Indignation no Shouou Jin'eizan!"

Guzman grits his teeth and grunts when Rika declares her spell, then quickly aims the bazooka-like gun at her, but Ail manages to slide away, forcing Guzman to defend form his own copy's knife, and turn his attention to Ail again.

Meanwhile, Rika draws rapid lines in zigzags with her thunder sword, but can't keep the copy away from her long enough to chant her spell, so after on last horizontal line, she attacks the copy, forcing it to block, and when the lines become lightning danmaku orbs, they paralyze the deadly image and turn to static just as it is.

Rika jumps back, evading a long rainbow beam aimed at her, then chants as rapidly as she can "I who stand in the full light of the heavens command thee who opens the gates of hell..."

Meanwhile, Ail flips backward to avoid the second copy's knife, and just as he lands, he rushes straight at the copy, making it stand in defense, but sways left at the last second and flies toward the real Guzman, who is aiming the Rainbow Gun at Rika.

Ail slides on the show-covered ground and knocks Guzman's legs, making him fall backward, then manages to swing both weapons downward, forcing Guzman to block the attack with the rainbow gun, and allowing Rika to finish the chant.

Meanwhile, Rika finishes "...come forth divine lightning!"

A bright and powerful lightning bolt strikes Rika directly, and once she channels some of that energy into both swords, with golden bolts of electricity sparking in her eyes, she zips around in zigzags while leaving trails of lightning bullets all around.

The ghostly Guzman copy that was after her recovers too late, and Rika easily disposes of him by showering him with more thunder bullets and strikes it with both her sword crossway, striking it with lightning that comes from her very own swords, and disintegrates it.

The real Guzman loses his patience and pushes Ail away, gets up on his feet, then aims his gun and shoots at the boy.

Ail manages to roll away just in time, but his right ethereal wing is struck directly, and it quickly absorbs the powerful energy, then channels it into Ail's body, but being such an immense amount of energy all it does is cause him great pain, forcing him to scream and fall on the ground, lose the black and white fire, and stop moving until the pain stops.

Guzman growls and says "finally, you're mine!", but Rika notices in time and says "oh no you don't!"

Guzman aims the bazooka-like weapon at Ail, but Rika tackles him away just in time, and while he's still flying sideways, she chases after him, aiming to cut off his hand and get rid of that gun.

Guzman, having his ring fully activated, easily follows Rika's moves and fires the beam at her, forcing her to sway to the left and get struck on the back of the neck by Guzman's remaining ghostly copy.

As soon as Rika falls on the ground and her spell cancels, the black and white fire that surrounded her vanishes, and the copy starts stomping her abdomen with all its might.

* * *

Meanwhile, the girls arrive to Eirin's Clinic and quickly notice there are already ten villagers waiting to be treated just outside the building, all with cuts and bruises all over their limbs, some having claw marks on their back or chests, and one of them holds his arm in place, as it seems it's ready to break off.

Suzaku takes off from Reimu's shoulder and starts circling around, as though scouting ahead for anything.

Budou yelps and jumps on Sanae's back, pushing her little face on her shoulder as she trembles and whimpers.

Sanae and Phredia pat the little bat's head, and Sanae says "I'm sorry sweetie, but you have to be strong now."

Budou just whimpers as a reply and continues to push her face on Sanae's shoulder.

Reimu and Marisa stand in front of the hovering stretcher, then Reimu says "well, this was to be expected. Dammit, what should we do?"

Alice approaches Reimu, then casually says "well, this is an emergency..."

Shanghai jumps from Alice's shoulder and lands on Marisa's, who smirks mischievously.

Before Reimu or Alice can ask, Shanghai cups her hands over her mouth and starts wailing like a siren while Marisa loudly shouts "emergency, please move-! GWACK!"

Before their plan unfolds, Luna pulls on the stretcher while Medicine pushes it, running over Marisa and Shanghai, then Medicine shouts "out of our way, this man is dying!"

Luna manages to stop sobbing long enough to angrily shout "let us through, or I'll kick you out of the way!"

The girls storm inside the clinic, leaving Reimu, Sanae, Alice and Hourai staring to the door in awe, then Reimu face palms, sighs, and says "well, as long as it worked. Come on, let's go. Marisa, get up!"

Marisa lies with her face buried on the ground with shanghai next to her shoulder, both holding out their hands over their head while holding out the symbol of love with their fingers.

They both pull their face off the ground and reveal their noses are all read and dirty, then Marisa groans and says "that was so uncalled for."

From behind them, Budou shrieks and whimpers loudly while trembling violently, and when they turn to look, they find Sanae kneeling on the snow-covered ground and embracing the little bat youkai.

She looks back at Reimu, then says "you go in without me. She's too scared, and I won't force her to go in like this."

Reimu nods, then says "we'll trade places if it's needed."

Inside the clinic, Eirin and Reisen are running back and forth, looking for drugs, ointments, tending to the two hospitalized patients, tending to the incoming patients, when Eirin suddenly stops with a stressed look on her face and shouts "what the hell happened here? Why are there so many injured?"

Luna, Medicine and Su-San look around, looking with worry at the injured villagers, then they all look at each other, Medicine and Su-San nod at the same time, then Luna takes a deep breath and loudly says "help him Eirin! He's dying!"

Reisen stops next to Eirin, both look at Kyo, then gasps at the same time.

Even though he's covered in a warm-looking cover, Kyo's skin starts turning blue, evident even though he's literally covered by a large burn mark.

Eirin points at Luna, then loudly and sternly says "place him on that bed next to the window, NOW!"

She turns to Reisen and sternly says "Udonge! Get the water and heat it up, then bring me numbers: C-76, 82-90 and number 10!"

Reisen salutes Eirin, then rushes off to the back of the clinic.

Meanwhile, Luna and Medicine struggle as they try to be as gentle as possible when switching Kyo to the bed, but Medicine is too short to be of too much help for Luna.

Eirin rushes through and helps them place Kyo on the bed, though does so as quickly and abruptly as possible.

Luna scowls and angrily says "hey, be more careful!" Eirin hurriedly replies "He doesn't have much time! What the hell happened? Reimu?"

Even though she's opening Kyo's eyelids to look into his eyes with a small flash light, Eirin notices Reimu and Marisa standing right in front of the door.

Reimu looks seriously toward Eirin, then says "he was hit by a very powerful beam. He is lucky it didn't turn him to dust. Can you do something?"

Reisen arrives with the heated water and uses a cloth to clean off the burn marks off Kyo's body, which Luna rapidly helps with, though doing so more gently than Reisen.

Eirin starts tracing her fingers through Kyo's neck while taking his pulse, then shoots a look of hopelessness at Reimu, though sighs and says "I will do what I can."

Outside, Alice stands next to the entrance of the clinic with Shanghai and Hourai flying around her, then Hourai sadly asks "mama, can't we do something?"

Alice looks around for a moment, then looks at Sanae and says "I don't think even a miracle will help this time, so..."

After she finishes speaking, Suzaku lands on the clinic's roof, expands her wings, then begins to sing the Onkamikami family song, emanating much needed hope through the tones.

Before long, Hourai joins in song, synchronizing with Suzaku, and as the people both inside and out the clinic quiet down and listen to the music, Sanae, Phredia and Budou stand up and silently make their way toward the building.

* * *

At the hourglass-like arena, Ail desperately tries to reach Rika and stop that copy from further harming her, but he find himself fighting off some exhaustion, dizziness, pain, and the real Guzman's beam and combat knife.

Guzman smiles as he points at his hat, then says "in just a few more minutes you won't be able to tell left from right."

Ail knows Guzman speaks the truth, but fights against himself so he doesn't fall into despair.

He quickly pulls a spell card from his pocket, surprising Guzman and making him fire wildly in an attempt to stop him, and after rolling sideways a third time, he shouts "Dragon Sign, Blue Dragon Claw!"

Ail's arms get surrounded in red flames that take the shape of dragon claws, then he rushes to attack Guzman without mercy, sending two hundred punches in just three seconds, along with some fireballs that fly right out of the knuckles with each punch.

Guzman smiles and dodges every single punch as though it were a mere game, then crouches and punches Ail's stomach, taking all the air out of him as he sinks the powerful fist in, and because of the impact, Ail is sent flying backward all the way to the magical wall, which shocks him the moment his wings touch them.

Meanwhile, Rika rolls around the ground, trying to recover herself from the previous attack, but the copy moves as fast as Guzman with his ring active.

She suddenly hears Suzaku saying "master, this is terrible. The healer's house is full of many injured, and the people here are losing hope. May I sing the song for them?"

Rika rolls after being kicked on the back, grunting after the strike, then manages to say "y-you do that *cough*! I'm sorry I can't help you now."

Concerned, Suzaku asks "master, are you alright?"

The copy smiles like the real Guzman just as he's about to kick again, then Rika raises her thunder sword and releases it just as copy stomps again, causing the image to get shocked by the swords defenses.

After standing up and taking a breather, Rika dusts her clothes and replies "yeah, he just needed a little shock. We'll go to the clinic as soon as we are done here!"

Suzaku concernedly says "please, be careful", then Rika grabs her family sword with both hands and swings it with all her might, successfully blocking and pushing away the copy after it tries to strike her with its knife.

Unknowingly, she sends it straight at Guzman, who was about to fire the Rainbow Gun at Ail, who lies on his face next to the magical wall.

Rika shouts "mister Ail, get up!", then rushes to help him, but suddenly stops, yelps, and covers herself up with her wings.

Ail pushes himself up with his arms, glares at Guzman with rage in his eyes after standing up, and opens the palm of his hand, where a black spell card magically appears and spins slowly just above the palm of his hand.

As he gets up, Guzman stares with fear at the card, but before he can lift his weapon, Ail shouts "Darkness, Dance of the Black Lights!"

Ail's starry night sky eyes turn into a red sky, his wings become physical and turn as black as Rumia's blob of darkness, and as he spreads the wings, he starts to involuntarily hover just above the snow.

His chest gets surrounded by a black flame, and the flame rapidly expands and turns into five dark thick rings that start dancing all around him, and fire thin dark beams.

These beams move in straight lines that turn abruptly as they home in on both Guzman and his copy, but Guzman is quick and manages to escape the attack.

Guzman's copy is touched by one of the beams, and like a magnet, attracts all the other nine beams to himself.

The beams pierce him viciously, and although he's just an image, they still hold him down as they open holes all over it, and inside its body, the beams expand slowly until they finally explodes.

Guzman gasps and shouts "what the hell! I thought you good guys didn't believe in being so forceful!"

Ail has changed. His entire body looks more bulky and darker, his hair has turned pitch black, his eyes look like a red moon's night sky, yet her retains his voice and peaceful aura.

He looks at Guzman and points with his right finger, then angrily says "shut the hell up, you coward! Byakuren, Elly, Sakuya, Flandre, Patchouli, Koakuma, Aya, and Kyo. For all that you have done to them and all my friends, for all the hell you've made us go through, I will make sure you suffer twice as much!"

* * *

On the other side of the arena, Rika peeks through her feathers and gasps when she looks at Ail.

Immediately, she watches with horror as he unleashes the thin black beams, then shouts "Ail, you're not like him! Don't sink to his level!"

Rika's words sink right into Ail's head, and rapidly, his hair and skin color return to normal, though his wings and eyes remains as they are.

He looks at Rika with a more calm look in his eyes, then nods.

Guzman watches with horror as the beams rapidly head toward him, threatening to finish him on contact, so, like the coward that he is, looks for an escape.

He aims the Rainbow Gun at Ail, thinking he might flinch, but it's as if he doesn't even care, so he looks at Rika and notices she is covering herself up with her wings.

He sneers as he slowly aims the weapon at Rika and shows his teeth through his vile smile when he notices the immediate reaction of surprise in Ail's eyes.

Without much hesitation, Guzman fires the beam and holds the trigger a little longer, making a much larger than needed beam.

Ail gasps, the dark spell cancels out, and he immediately recovers his original Yozoragan look.

He opens a large black gap right in front of Rika and shouts "MOVE!", and once the entire beam is consumed by the gap, Ail attempts to open a white gap, though it's taking him some time.

While he concentrates, Guzman takes the chance and fires his gun straight at the boy, forcing Ail to instinctively cover himself up with his wings and allow them to absorb the energy, but the energy is too intense, and the pain that causes him as the wings channel all that excess energy through his body causes him to scream to the sky, cancel his blood limit, and finally fall unconscious on the snow.

Guzman laughs while Rika shouts "Ail! Ail, wake up!"

The vile human aims the gun at the defenseless Ail, then smiles as he slowly squeezes the trigger.

He stops and rolls away from a large spear made entirely of electricity, and looks with horror at Rika, who again has six pair of wings, two of those made entirely of light.

She stares at Guzman straight into his eyes, causing him to see the little girl and the two women he saw when Koakuma used that spell on him, then drops on the snow on his knees while holding his head, groaning as though in pain.

While he's distracted, Rika shouts "Quicksilver", and a spell card starts spinning right in front of her chest.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Eintei, Tewi stands at the entrance, and is charging one thousand yen to anyone wishing to enter the parameter.

Mokou walks to the entrance, helping a young woman reach the gate.

The woman looks pale and is bleeding through a claw wound on the left side of her torso and right calf.

When they try to enter, Tewi stops them and says "hold it. It's a thousand to come in."

Mokou quickly loses her patience and shouts "move, you stupid rabbit! Can't you see this is an emergency?"

Tewi stares at the woman, smiles, then says "five hundred for you, and I'll throw in three days worth of luck."

Mokou is about to lose it again, but the woman smiles and says "you are that lucky rabbit. Alright, here you go!", then rummages through her left pocket.

Mokou quickly asks "are you stupid? You're here to get treated, not swindled!"

The woman hands the coins to the youkai rabbit, then happily says "with her luck blessings I am sure I'll be just fine!"

Mokou groans in defeat, then sighs and asks "and why are you charging at the entrance little rabbit?"

Tewi smiles and says "glad you asked. We have a miracle worker inside the clinic, and a beautiful show at the mansion."

Both Mokou at the girl look at each other, Mokou with great confusion, and the girl looking excited, though exhausted.

At the mansion, the living room has become a small stage, where Hourai and Suzaku sing a happy song for the many villagers that have been healed quickly and successfully, while Kaguya and Shanghai dress up in matching light-blue kimonos with red bows around their waists, and tie up the sides of their hair into small buns with red ribbons, all while holding matching pink fans and dancing gracefully at the rhythm of the song, and all while Alice uses her other dolls to create the effect of dancing flowers on the background.

Mokou feels sickened at the sight, but the woman she's helping seems very delighted, so she just sighs and calmly says "come on, we need to get you healed before you lose more blood."

Right after entering the clinic, the first thing to reach Mokou's and the woman's senses is Sanae's voice as she happily says "and remember, we have an extension at the Hakurei Shrine, so don't be shy and drop by, and thank your miraculous goddess, Kanako Yasaka, with your undying faith!"

Sanae notices Mokou and the girl and says "oh, welcome. Eirin will be with you shortly. Together, with the power of miracles, we will heal you and ease you pains!"

Mokou looks far more sick than the young woman as she stares at Sanae, yet continues to walk inside, helping the woman reach one of the empty beds.

Holding back her urge to vomit, Mokou sets the woman on the nearest bed, then says "I'll be going now, or I'll be the one in need of treatment, so... yeah."

As Mokou exits the clinic, the young woman smiles weakly and says "thanks for your help."

The woman waits patiently for a little while, then she gasps when she looks down to her right.

Budou wears a small pink nurse's uniform with a springy skirt, and looking up at the woman with her concerned violet pupil-less eyes, she nervously asks "um... miss Eirin or miss Reisen will be with you soon. Umm, i-is there anything you might need miss?"

The woman smiles, blood gushes out her nose, and while holding her nose and chuckling, she says "sweetie, I may die without regrets thanks to you."

Budou panics, and with tears clinging to her eyes, she shouts "please, don't say that!"

More blood gushes out the woman's nose as she falls back on the bed with a wide smile on her face, whispering "it's heaven~!"

Budou panics and starts flapping her arms and wings around, shouting "some one... anyone! She's going to heaven!"

Eirin appears right behind Budou, plugging her bleeding nose with a pair of tissues, and places a calming hand on the bat's shoulder, then calmly says "it's alright. Why don't you take a little break and let me and Udonge handle this one on our own, hm?"

Budou stops running around and flapping her wings, manages to calm down, then looks up and smiles at Eirin, nods, then says "ok. Sorry, she just scared me."

Even with her nose plugged, some blood seeps through the paper and trails down Eirin's upper lip as she smiles back and giggles while watching Budou run toward Sanae.

Meanwhile, Reimu and Marisa drink some tea while quietly looking around, then Marisa asks "so Reimu, are you ok with that girl using her miracles like this?"

Reimu sips on her tea as she hums, and after swallowing the tea in her mouth, she lazily says "it's fine, as long as I keep getting donation."

Marisa quietly stares at Reimu with disbelief, then asks "are you really a shrine maiden?"

In an isolated bed surrounded by curtains, Luna Rivers and Medicine Melancholy refuse to join in the light mood outside those curtains as they watch over Kyo.

The young man has recovered most of the color on his skin, but he's not recuperating as fast as they wish.

Luna brushes Kyo's hair with her hand as gently as she can, then sobs and says "please wake up. I-I promise, I won't bother you with a family again, so just wake up already! Please..."

Though Medicine looks like she's ready to cry, she sounds uncaring as she says "we were already one. Stupid Kyo, getting hurt like that. He better wake up, or I'll... I'll..."

Her voice begins to crack, and finally she starts to cry, letting out all her pain, lowering the mood of those outside the curtains, and even though Su-San pats her head to comfort her, the doll youkai simply cries louder.

Outside the curtain, Marisa asks Reimu "hey, is she really a youkai? I mean, aren't human lives insignificant to them?"

Reimu looks into her cup of tea, grips it tightly, then says "when attachments are made, even youkai shed tears... even for insignificant human lives."

Marisa looks around at the saddened faces all over the room, trying her best not to get swallowed by the grief emanating from the little youkai's cries.

* * *

Back outside, in the strangely shaped clearing at the Bamboo Forest, Guzman aims his gun at Rika as her spell readies, but he feels his right leg failing him, then sharp pain courses through his entire body as he falls to the ground.

when he looks back, he notices Ail chuckling after having stabbed his scimitar of light on right calf, and falling unconscious on the ground once more.

By the time Guzman looks at Rika again, her spell card has stopped, and she loudly shouts "Kouryuu Metsugasou no Zanryu Roueijin!"

All of Rika's wings spread open as wide as they can, then Rika disappears from sight.

She suddenly appears to Guzman's right, grabs Ail, then swings her sword and sends a wave of light that cuts right through Guzman's body, burning his skin on contact.

She disappears again and reappears on the other side of the arena, places Ail on the snow, then disappears again.

She reappears behind Guzman and sends another wave of burning light, then disappears again, repeating the process for a short while.

Rika finally reappears at the spot where she initially activated her spell, however, the white energy wings are gone, yet the entire area around Guzman is surrounded by floating feathers of light that fall slowly and peacefully around him.

Guzman's face, right arm, abdomen, left and right legs have burn marks from Rika's initial attack, and as he looks around and slowly stands up, he thinks "stupid girl. Dammit, that really hurt. While she tries this tickle attack, I'll blast her damned head off!"

Rika aims her sword at Guzman, and very suddenly, the feathers become oval bullets that stay in the air, waiting for Rika's command.

Rika leans her body forward, winding her sword to her left, then disappears and reappears on the other side of the arena behind Guzman, sheathes her sword, and after it clicks in place, all the bullets get cut into tiny shards that quickly swarm around and move at random while making many large circles that move unevenly.

Guzman turns around to shoot Rika, but the tiny bullet fragments strike him from all sides, pushing him around as he grunts with every sudden spasm, his entire body being burned by the countless bullets that gather behind Rika to form her wings once more.

Guzman continues to get struck over and over by the tiny bullet fragments until finally, unable to take any more, he drops the gun and screams loudly to the sky, his purple sunglasses shatter, and the women and the girl in his head smile and extend their hands to him as he falls to the snow with a loud thud.

Finally, the spell cancels out, and Rika starts to breathe as though completely exhausted.

Her Soraogan mode cancels out as she slowly walks toward Ail, then says to herself "twice... in one day... I think I... I need a little... rest."

She smiles as she starts dragging her feet and gets closer to Ail, and once next to him, she whispers "it's done... mister Ail... But why... why do I feel so... so dizzy?"

The realization hits her hard, and as she falls on her knees she looks back at the unconscious Guzman, who has managed to activate his hat once again, and is making her feel much worse than she should.

She fights against the brain-scrambling waves, but due to her exhaustion, she can't hold on and ends up falling on the snow with her face pointed at Ail.

Unaware of it, the entire arena is surrounded by tengu, and all are attacking the barrier with hopes of breaking through.

Aya shouts "come on! I managed to enter easily through one and save Ail, so why can't do that with this one!"

One of the male white wolf tengu on top of the barrier shouts "well nothing works!"

A female crow tengu above the white wolf shouts "spells aren't working either!"

They are all surprised when a concentration of bamboo shoots to their right simply fall down on their own, then Momiji rushes to investigate, only to get struck on the nose by something cold and blunt.

When she recovers, she sees Nitori glaring back at her with hatred in her tired eyes, saying "butt off tengu! I am going to take care of it myself!"

Aya and Hatate land beside Momiji, both ready to attack the kappa, but Momiji raises her arms to stop them and scowls at Nitori as she angrily says "next time you attack me like that I won't respond. Don't betray me, or I'll be hunting you down, personally!"

Nitori quietly bows, her backpack turns her translucent, and like nobody's business, she goes through the strange colorful barrier.

Aya angrily asks "you're letting her go after that?" Momiji rubs her cheek, then says "she's going to end it, so let's give her the chance."

* * *

An hour has passed and finally, Ail starts to wake up, finding himself and Rika lying on melting snow, as the walls and roof of colorful light prevents the snow to reach them.

He gets up slowly and looks around himself, noticing immediately the arena is slightly more bright than before, and that's when he gasps, activates his Yozoragan mode, then springs on his feet while looking around for Guzman.

He looks in front of himself and gasps when he sees Guzman all the way across the other side of the arena, aiming his Rainbow Gun and smiling.

Ail opens his gap and shouts "go ahead! This time I'm sending it BACK!"

Guzman laughs and shouts "open all the rifts you want, this one's going for your HEAD!"

Guzman shoots and Ail gasps, trying hard not to cover himself up with his ethereal wings.

The beam is just about to enter the gap, when it suddenly stops and crashes against a glass wall that's right in front of the gap.

That's when Ail realizes the arena is being split up by that glass wall, and the side of the arena Guzman is in is a lot darker than before, and from outside in the sky, it looks like the sands in the hourglass have run out, and Guzman is inside the emptied and darkened end.

Guzman looks as surprised as Ail as he looks around his surroundings, and when he looks toward Ail again, he sees Nitori standing in front of the crystal wall, glaring back at him with puffy red and tired eyes, holding back her desire to break down and cry.

Guzman smiles, then says "so, it's you."

With a stern, yet cracking voice, Nitori points her finger at Guzman and says "I gave you everything. Food, shelter, I cared for you, I trusted you, you were my **friend!**"

Guzman quietly glares back at Nitori as she starts walking to the left, and as a tear rolls down her right eye, she says "then you destroy everything I worked so hard for, you **killed** Julia, you tell me _'it's the only way'_, and I **foolishly** believe you, then you spit on my face, call me a stupid girl, and even after I offer you my hand again, you spit on me yet again, then use my, no, **our** creations, to kill! Julia and I made those for the good of all, not so that you could go and bring hell!"

Guzman starts moving to the right to keep Nitori in front of him, and as a silver mechanical arm rises from her silver backpack and wraps itself around her own arm, extending her arm by a little, she shouts "now look what you did! Now, I either stop you, or die right here! I can't return home, I lost my friends, you even made me try to kill Ail, and just look at you. You want to kill me too, don't you?"

Another silver mechanical arm rises from the backpack and wraps itself around Nitori's arm, while Guzman chuckles as he shows a disgusting smile to the little kappa, points the Rainbow gun at her, then says "yeah, sure. Why not? I'll be merciful to you and end your miserable existence right here and now! You won't have to suffer another second..."

As he moves around to keep Nitori in front of him, he aims the weapon and lips the words "my friend."

He squeezes the trigger and all Nitori does is stop, whimper, and close her eyes to wait for the inevitable, while two silver mechanical legs spring form her backpack and wrap themselves around her legs, making her taller, however, there is only a click, then Guzman scoffs and says "well, what do you know. The blasted thing jammed after all."

When Nitori opens her eyes, she watches as Guzman throws away the Rainbow Gun and unsheathes the combat knife, saying "guns are definitely more my style, but still, if it's the only way..."

Finally, the backpack itself wraps around Nitori's torso, leaving only her head exposed.

Guzman stares at her and says "well, I should have taken that bag after all."

From behind Guzman, Ail strikes the glass wall with all his might and shouts "Nitori~! Nitori, run! Let me finish this! Don't get involved!"

Nitori angrily shouts back "butt out, you idiot! This is no longer your business, so either shut up and watch, or I'm taking you out!"

Ail gasps and backs away from the glass, then looks at the Rainbow Gun on the ground close to Guzman.

He widens his eyes and gasps, then stares at Guzman with surprise.

Rika moans, getting Ail's attention, so he kneels beside her and softly asks "hey, are you alright?"

Rika holds her head and nods, then struggles to kneel and weakly say "yeah... I think so."

She looks around and notices the differences in lighting on both sides of the arena, then asks "what's going on?"

Ail sighs, then says "Nitori sealed us in. She's taking on Guzman on her own."

Rika opens her eyes wide with surprise and exclaims "no, wait! She's going to get killed!", and tries to get up running, but only ends up falling on her knees again.

Ail holds her shoulders, points toward the dark arena, then says "relax. Just watch. She may not look like it, but Nitori is one strong kappa. You'll see."

Rika stares with sadness toward Nitori, admiring the silver armor she wears, then sighs and says "I really hope you're right."

* * *

Back at the clinic, Medicine has finally quieted down and sleeps on Luna's lap, while Su-San lies on her belly on Luna's head, looking around with those lifeless eyes of hers.

Luna holds Kyo's right hand and continues to squeeze it in hopes of getting a reply from him, however, it remains limp.

Reimu enters through the curtains and quietly asks "anything yet?"

Luna wants to look at Reimu, but fears she'll start crying again if she does, so she looks toward the maiden's sleeve and shakes her head left and right.

Reimu sighs, then sits on a stool to Kyo's left, places her hand on his forehead, then smiles and says "you know, this idiot actually tired to hit on me the very first day he came here with Ail. Heh, he gave up quickly, but we still argued a lot... about everything."

Luna gulps, and with a cracked voice, she softly says "Reimu, no offense, but I really don't want to hear it."

Reimu stares at Luna with pained eyes, yet smiles and sighs, then says "I'm sorry. I guess I said too much."

Reimu stands up from the stool and tries to hurry away, but Luna grabs hold of her hand before she's out of reach and stares into her eyes.

She wants to apologize, but her lips seem to be sealed shut, however Reimu manages to understand by looking into her teary eyes, then sighs, nods, smiles, then says "it's alright. I'll come check on you later."

Luna lets her go, then places her hand on Medicine's head, making her moan softly.

Reimu hurries away from the curtained bed and heads straight for the exit.

Marisa knows something is not right, so she chases after her friend.

Outside, Reimu leans against the wall to the right of the door, and when Marisa walks out, she turns her eyes to the sky.

Marisa stares at her friend, trying to look into her eyes, then asks "is it really that bad?"

Reimu turns her head away as far as her neck will allow, then nods.

Marisa stares at Reimu, hoping her friend will turn around to face her, but is surprised when Reimu says "I am supposed to be stronger than this, but I never thought it would hurt this much. Losing a friend, I mean."

Marisa continues to stare at Reimu, then suddenly smiles and tries to comfort the maiden by saying "aww, you're not giving him enough credit. You'll see. He will pull through, and you'll be arguing about something new, ze!"

Reimu finally turns her face to Marisa, smiling, yet closing her eyes to try and keep the tears hidden, but they still escape and roll down her cheeks as she says with a cracked voice "y-yeah... y-your right. He's... strong."

Marisa knows her friend well enough to know she's hiding something, but instead of doing her usual and argue the truth out, she grabs Reimu and gives her a tight hug, all while Reimu continues to cry, smile and say "he'll be... alright."

Inside the clinic, in the drug room, Reisen and Eirin walk back to the front of the room, where Sanae seems to be waiting for them, then both shrug and Eirin shakes her head very slowly.

Sanae sighs, then says "even with my power over miracles..."

Eirin covers half her face with her left hand, then says "the damage to his internal organs was too extensive. I'm surprised he has managed to live this long."

Both Eirin and Sanae sigh, then Sanae says "Ail won't like this... I hope I'll be able to calm him down when it happens."

Reisen suddenly asks "maser, what about _that_?"

Eirin looks at Reisen with dangerous, yet curious eyes, while Sanae stares at both with confusion.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the hourglass arena, Nitori and Guzman stare at each other for a while longer, then Nitori's mechanical left arm whirrs and reveals a blunt blade-like extension that covers the hand like a small shield, and the right hand turns into a thick metallic hammer.

Guzman chuckles, then rushes straight at Nitori, activating his ring on the way.

Nitori takes a defensive position and waits for Guzman's attack, and just as he's in reach, Guzman leaps as high as he can, and aims his knife at Nitori's head, but his jump lacks much power, and all he manages to hit is the right arm, which Nitori uses to push him away with ease on instinct.

Guzman rolls backward after falling on the ground, then ends up on his seat, looking dazed and confused, and while holding on to his spinning head, he shouts "what the hell is this? I should have jumped at least some six feet or more from the ground! What the hell happened?"

Nitori scoffs, then says "the blue ring I'm wearing, when activated near its twin, causes the two rings cancel each other out, so there's really no way for you to cheat fate anymore."

After those words, Guzman glares at Nitori and just sits where he is.

He suddenly grabs the red ring on his left hand, pulls it off with all his rage, then throws it far away.

After that, he stand up and takes the cowboy hat off, then casually tosses it behind himself, then smiles at Nitori and says "there. Just like the first day I came here, minus the gun... and I didn't really have a knife this good, did I?"

Nitori twitches and remembers the day they met, how he saved her from Hina's attack, then shakes her head to erase that vision and says "don't try to confuse me! It's time to show you what happens when you cross the kappa!"

Nitori rushes straight at Guzman, the mechanical suit giving her speeds far beyond her own abilities, and lands a left hook right across Guzman's face, long before he realizes what happened.

The impact sends him spinning through the air while spitting out some blood before he finally crashes on the ground and bounces three times on the snow, until he finally stops rolling after crashing hard against the colorful, yet darkened wall.

Nitori looks at her left fist with rage after she realizes she retracted the pointy shield before striking his face, and now closes her eyes as she thinks "I can't do it... I should have let Ail and Rika finish this."

Though in a daze and in great pain, Guzman manages to stand up with a smile as he loudly asks "you don't have the guts, do you?"

Nitori stays still, looking away to hide the pained look in her eyes as she returns the mechanical right arm to normal as well, then Guzman loudly says "so WEAK! And after you say all that crap! You don't deserve that toy! Let me show you how it's done!"

Guzman rushes to Nitori, who turns to face him with a terrorized face, but instead of attacking, she covers herself up with the mechanical arms and waits.

Guzman jumps again, this time in full knowledge of his human limitations, and hold the combat knife with both hands as he thrusts it down with all his might, trusting its tip into the left mechanical forearm.

Before Nitori can react, he grabs the arm and yanks it right off, making Nitori scream and squeeze herself into a ball after feeling as though her real left arm had been ripped right off.

She hyperventilates as she slowly recovers from the pain, but Guzman doesn't give her the chance to recover before using the arm he just ripped off of her like a golf club, striking her back and sending her rolling away.

He manages to reveal the pointed shield on the severed arm, runs toward Nitori and jumps on her, forcing her to use the mechanical legs to push him back before he cuts her neck off.

Nitori Struggles to get back up, trying to ignore the pain on her left arm as she readies herself to attack once more, turning the right fist into a hammer once again and breathing through her mouth with great effort.

* * *

Guzman quickly spring up on his feet, holding the mechanical left arm with his left hand, and the stolen combat knife with his right, and after starting into Nitori's eyes for a moment, he runs at her with the knife raised above his head.

Nitori takes a few breaths as she waits for Guzman to get closer, then raises the right mechanical arm to defend herself and tries to kick the man away, but Guzman picks up his legs in mid-air and uses Nitori's mechanical leg for support, jumps higher, then aims the knife downward at Nitori's head.

Nitori gasps and flinches, somehow making Guzman miss her head and hit the right side of her armored shoulder.

She reacts to the impact by swinging the hammer arm and hitting Guzman on the ribs, making a loud crunching sound upon impact, yet Guzman simply grunts, lands on his feet just three feet away from Nitori, then swings the mechanical arm, striking Nitori's face with the broad side of the pointed shield.

Nitori rubs her cheek with her left hand, forgetting about the pain she was feeling before, then raises her right arm just in time to punch the shielded arm away from her face and out of Guzman's hands.

Guzman remains unfazed and rushes forward to try and stab Nitori's face again, but Nitori manages to lift her right mechanical leg in time to kick Guzman's abdomen so hard, he groans as the air in his body leaves him, yet continues to grip on tight to the knife and hold on to her leg.

Nitori drops on her back on the snow to kick Guzman off her with her left mechanical leg, but all she manages is to have Guzman wrap his arms around both legs, and with all his might, he rips off the mechanical legs, forcing a bloody scream out of Nitori.

Guzman throws the legs away and quickly jumps on the kappa's torso, quickly aiming the knife to her face, but he stops when he notices the hammer arm coming his way.

Nitori strikes the right side of his head, making another disturbing crunching sound upon impact, and after he is off her, she tries to get back up, but all she manages to accomplish is to scream again when her legs touch the ground.

Fear takes her, she can't get up and defend herself from Guzman's attack, but after waiting for him for a minute, she starts to calm down and look around.

Guzman lies to her right, groaning softly while trying to move.

Nitori takes this chance to recover from the pain as she thinks "stupid suit, linking with my nervous system like that. I'm going to have to fix that later. Wait, what am I thinking? I need to get up, or he's going to get up and kill me instead!"

As if reading her thoughts, Guzman slowly stands up, the right side of his head and left side of his ribs swollen, yet smiling as he says "very good... Car... kappa girl. T... too bad you weren't.. good... enough..."

He grunts and almost falls on his knees, but manages to recover and walk toward Nitori with the knife on hand.

Nitori shivers, fear taking over her senses again as she knows she still can't defend herself with her legs still hurting as they are.

She looks to her left and notices the Rainbow Gun just a few feet away, then looks up and gasps when she sees Guzman ready to thrust that knife right in her face, so she rolls to the left just in time, whimpering from the pain in her legs.

Guzman falls on his knees and stabs the snow, then angrily says "hey, stop moving *pant* stupid girl."

Guzman is in unbearable pain now, and has to breathe through his mouth in order to assimilate with the pain and move.

This time, he slowly crawls toward the little kappa, aiming his knife at her neck, but Nitori rolls away at the last moment for a second time.

Nitori is just one roll away from the Rainbow Gun, and now anxiety claims her, causing the right arm to malfunction and dangerously flail around, so she takes a deep breath and manages to calm down, causing the arm to fall limp on the ground, then a small lid opens up on it and she takes her arm out through it.

By the time she's free from the arm, she notices Guzman is once again right on top of her, so she rolls away once more, leaving the torso armor in two pieces behind, and letting Guzman stab the snow once more.

Having recovered enough, Nitori manages to get on her knees and rapidly crawl toward the bazooka-like weapon, grabs it, then remain sitting on the ground while aiming it toward Guzman.

The vile human smiles and says "a weak little piece of garbage like you can never have what it takes", then slowly stands up and slowly makes his way to her.

Nitori has her finger on the trigger, but as she looks up at Guzman, the memories of their time together rush into her head, making her tremble violently and causing her tears to start flooding her eyes.

Guzman gets in range and raises his knife, ready to strike her heart.

Nitori gasps, clenches her eyes shut, then shouts "**WHY~?**", and finally squeezes the trigger.

To her surprise, the thick rainbow beam flies right out of the weapon and consumes Guzman in a second.

His bloody scream echoes all the way through the colorful walls and reaches the ears of those at Eintei, all while Nitori thinks "it worked? It never really jammed? Then he... why?"

* * *

The once terrifying image of Guzman has now become a mere memory, and in its stead lies a pathetic crippled body that lies lifelessly on the snow.

After realizing what she did, Nitori starts to tremble and drops the Rainbow Gun back on the snow, and as soon as her first tear rolls down her right cheek, accompanying one loud sob, she gets up and runs toward the dying man, trying to call out his name, but unable to do so without choking on her own tears.

Meanwhile, the crystal barrier that separated Ail and Rika from Nitori and Guzman turns into plastic squares that fall to pieces, then melt into the ground and become part of the snow.

Ail and Rika watch with amazement as the blocks melt into the ground, but quickly turn their eyes toward Nitori, who loudly cries "what have I done? No, I'm sorry! Please don't go!"

Rika and Ail rush to the dark side of the arena and watch as Nitori holds Guzman's limp and swollen head up on her lap and cries away.

Ail holds Rika's shoulder before she gets too close, then points at the black television, softly saying "not yet."

Rika and Ail approach the black box, and in a flash, Rika unsheathes her sword, slashes the television through the middle, and after her sword clicks inside the sheath, the television splits in half and the colorful barrier vanishes, allowing the snow to reach them once more.

Meanwhile, Nitori places her forehead against the villainous human's as she cries inconsolably, asking "why did you do it? Why did you make me do this?"

Guzman wakes up and smiles as he stares back at Nitori, who feels a bit of relief in her heart after seeing him awake. He spits out a bit of blood, then whispers "you stupid girl. Rejoice. You freed me from this lying world. It was fated to be this way my child."

Guzman slowly lifts his right arm and slightly touches Nitori's hair before letting it fall back to the snow, then whispers "I'm sorry, it's just... you look so much like her, I keep... confusing you."

Nitori shivers as she smiles and says "s-stop talking! I-I'll get you to the doctor! You'll get better, we'll fix the resort... sure, you'll have to answer for a few things, but that's just..."

Guzman continues to smile as his eyes slowly drift away, then he places a weak left arm on Nitori's lips and whispers "stop talking nonsense. You know as well as I do that... I am free... Carmen. No more... will I have to suffer... through this maddening lie we call... l-life."

Nitori is unable to hold back her tears and bites down on her lips so she doesn't interrupt Guzman with her own bawling, but her strength keeps failing her the more he drifts from consciousness.

By now, white wolves, crow and one blonde female Daitengu surround the area, all aiming hateful glares and some aiming weapons at Nitori and Guzman.

With some effort of will, Nitori manages to hold her crying as she asks through her cracking voice "please, before you go. Y-your name. What is your name?"

Through his eyes, Guzman is only able to see Nitori's silhouette, and thinking it's the girl called Carmen, he pauses for a moment before whispering "I... I don't... reme..m..ber~!"

Expiring after his last word, Nitori can't hold herself back any longer and grips the human tightly around the neck, shouting "Guzman! No!"

She cries inconsolably while holding on to the vile human, who died with an undeserving smile on his face, even though he couldn't even give something as simple as a name.

To Nitori, it feels as though and hour has passed before Ail and Rika place a gentle and comforting hand on both of the kappa's shoulders, and instinctively, Nitori lets go of Guzman's body and rushes toward Ail and buries her crying face in his cut shirt as she cries away.

* * *

Thirty minutes pass, and the tengu have wrapped Guzman's body in a black sheet, and not a single one of them shows any compassion, and both Ail and Rika understand their fury.

Somehow, however, after witnessing all that happened, they both feel sad at the manner of his death, and wish they could take to body instead, but Momiji seems to read what they are thinking through their eyes and whispers "don't even try it. This body is to be treated as the vile criminal that he was. If you try anything, we will stop you."

Nitori sits on one of the farthest corners of the hourglass-shaped clearing, wearing only her blue dress, swinging herself around as she hugs her knees, rubbing her puffed eyes and sniffling occasionally.

Ail, Rika, Aya and Momiji approach the little kappa, then Ail bends down to pick her up, and say "come on. Let us take you to see Eirin before I take you home."

Rika stares compassionately at Nitori, then asks "wait, what about her tings? That backpack of hers?"

Without looking up, Nitori whispers "he broke it", then stands up on her own and rushes away.

Before anyone can call for her one of the white wolf tengu shouts "where the hell is he? He was right here just a moment ago!"

Guzman's body has disappeared, along with the black sheets that wrapped his body.

Nitori stops in her tracks, but simply stands in place without even glancing toward where the body was.

Momiji unsheathes her sword and Aya holds her fan threateningly, both aiming at Ail and Rika, then Momiji angrily asks "what did you do? Ail, I _**told**_ you-!"

Ail rapidly shakes his head and waves his arms around, shouting "wait, I swear, I didn't do it!"

Rika nervously adds "we've been here with you the whole time, so how could he have done anything?"

Aya sternly replies "we know he can open those gaps, so out with it already!"

More and more tengu aim their weapons at Ail, but Nitori finally speaks, loudly saying "that sheet was made to disintegrate the bodies of the dead, so the body isn't defiled in any way."

The tengu stare at Nitori, who doesn't even turn around and simply continues on her own.

Finally, Aya signals the wolves to lower their weapons, glares at Ail and Rika, then says "she'd better be telling the truth, for your sake."

Ail gulps, then asks "you think I'd risk having the tengu on my case?"

Rika suddenly gasps and exclaims "miss Nitori, wait!"

Ignoring Rika, Nitori continues on her way without pause, so Ail bows and asks "can we go now?"

The blonde Daitengu, who looks like a normal human, except for being quite large in stature, with long wavy hair that reaches her waist, and wears a white shirt, black pants, and a bright red tokin on her head, bows to Ail and signals him and Rika to move along.

Ail and Rika bow respectfully, then rush after Nitori.

After they are gone, the blonde tengu, in a mist stern tone, calls "Hatate!"

Hatate appears behind her left, saluting her and saying "yes ma'am."

The Daitengu turns around and asks "that woman. Is she the one you refer to as 'Rika-sis'?"

Hatate blushes with embarrassment as she scratches her right cheek, and looks away as she says "um, yeah, that's Rika-sis."

The tall tengu smiles, then says "very well."

Hatate stares with curiosity, but does not dare to ask the meaning of the questioning.

* * *

Ail, Rika and Nitori arrive to the clinic through Ail's gap, and the moment they walk through the front door, they are surrounded by the others, all eager to know of Guzman's fate.

Without words, Ail and Rika manage to let everyone know what happened, so all but Marisa drop the subject.

Reimu grabs the confused witch by her shoulder, pulls her away, then says "come on, I'll explain. Rika, come with me."

Ail and Sanae take the quiet little kappa to a bed, where Reisen starts by checking her temperature as she takes off the kappa's hat.

Sanae continues to look at Ail with a sad smile, so Ail finally looks back and asks "what happened?"

Sanae gulps and looks away, and that's when Budou quietly tugs on Ail's pants, getting his attention.

He immediately notices her puffy eyes and asks "have you been crying all this time?"

Budou nods as she is lifted off the ground by Ail, then hugs his neck as she says through a cracked voice "l-large brother... he won't say."

Ail gasps and rushes with Budou to the only bed covered by curtains, where Luna sits on a stool to the right of the bed, with Medicine and Su-san standing to her right, and almost immediately after looking at his friend on the bed, pale and unmoving, his own skin turns almost transparent.

A powerful chill claims every inch of his body, and even his heart feels like a cold and deadly void.

Without thinking on it too much, he activates his Yozoragan mode and stares at Kyo.

Once, Kyo's energy would surround him in proud red, looking like a powerful and unyielding flame, but now, it looks like a mere white wave without any will on it.

A tear escape Ail's eye, and before he starts to sob, Sanae grabs hold of him, places his face on her shoulder, then says "I tried. I really did. We all tried."

As Ail sobs away along with Budou and Sanae, Luna and Medicine both embrace each other and start sobbing as quietly as they can.

Their moment is cut short when from Nitori's bed, Reisen loudly calls "miss kappa~! Where are you? Hey, has anyone seen the kappa girl? She was just here. Look there's her hat!"

Ail and Rika look at each other, both knowing full well what is happening, but Ail is unable to speak, so Rika approaches Reisen and says "it's alright miss Reisen. She probably went back home."

Reisen looks a little confused, but doesn't think too much about it, hands over Nitori's hat to Rika, and says "well, as long as she's alright. Can you give this to her when you see her?"

Rika accepts the hat while looking at Ail, who looks back and nods, even though his eyes burn with his tears, then Rika nods at Reisen and replies "sure. We'll make sure she gets it."

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Youkai Forest, Agava leads Nitori to a dark and secluded area, where the snow has covered so much of the ground, nobody would ever think of looking for them there.

Once they are through the impossibly tall snow mounds, Agava says "we had some trouble, but we did it, just as you asked. I took his body through the shadow realm and brought him here safely."

Rumia stands next to a pair of white shovels with buttons and beams of light coursing through them, an impressively deep hole, and the black sheets containing Guzman's body.

She looks at Nitori, then smiles and says "look, look! Agava even managed to get some of those 'mon' coin things for him!"

Nitori smiles, even though she starts to cry, then says "thanks. As promised, I'll build you a nice big house, wherever you want it."

Agava pats Nitori's back, then says "we'll take our time choosing, so you don't need to rush. Now, let's do this before anyone sees us."

Nitori continues to cry as she smiles, then says "first, I'd like to say a few words..."

Agava and Rumia quickly step behind Nitori, and they both place their hands together under their waists as Nitori closes her eyes, claps her hands as though praying, then says "to whomever I am praying to... we youkai don't do this for humans often, so... please, I beg of you, just make sure he has a safe passage to the next life, and if he has to go to hell for his deeds, at least lessen his punishment, if only for a tiny bit."

She opens her eyes, then makes her way to Guzman's wrapped body, then says "I'm sorry I couldn't get a white sheet. You destroyed that when you ripped off the left arm... Still, I am sorry it ended this way..."

She starts to cry again, and through her tears, the says "I may be stupid for doing this for you, even... even after all you did... but it's just my nature! I'm not a bad person, but I guess... No, I was being selfish."

Suddenly, her tears dry up as she looks up at the dark snowy sky, then says "I was using you to show off to the others, to prove my point that kappa and humans could be friends... equals. But I guess you showed me the hard way how wrong I was. I'm sorry I forced this on you... and I'm sorry for..."

Agava places a hand on Nitori's shoulder, then says "that's enough. The hole's starting to fill with snow. We gotta do it now."

Nitori nods, then the three girls lift the wrapped body, toss it into the hole, and just like that, the shovels beep, then start pouring dirt and snow inside, covering the body up for its eternal rest.

* * *

TWO DAYS LATER

Komachi Onozuka, the so-called god of death that ferries the dead across the Sanzu River to take them to Higan, lies on the snow with her arms behind her head while surrounded by many flowers, enjoying the glistening mist that forever surrounds the river.

A tall shadow casts itself over her eyes from her right, annoying her after disturbing one of her many resting moments.

She narrows her right eye and angrily says "oi, oi, can't you see I'm busy? Why don't you come back later and... wait, WHAT THE HELL?"

When she looks at the source of the shadow, her eyes open wide and her lazy face changes to undeniable surprise as she gets on her knees and gets up on her feet.

She stammers as she points at the being with her left hand, then asks "how? For the love of all that makes sense, how the hell did **YOU** get past Muenzuka? Hell, and you even managed to take the shape of your own body! HOW?"

A most disturbing familiar voice scoffs, then says "just ferry me across like you should."

In front of Komachi is the disturbing figure of Guzman, who smiles as he places his hands on his waist.

His skin is pale, his eyes are completely white, and he wears a black rag over himself.

Komachi sneers as she raises her right hand, then snicker and says "I charge for my services."

Guzman glares at the shinigami, but rummages through the rag as though it has pockets, and to Komachi's, and his own surprise, he pulls out five golden coins.

Komachi stares at the coins with disgust, takes them off Guzman's hand, then angrily points at her boat on the edge of the river and says "get in. Geez, how annoying! And YOU of all spirits!"

After rowing with her scythe for an hour, at what appears to be the center of the river, where no land can be seen on either side, Komachi stops rowing, smiles, then says "sorry, but you're not going any farther. Now, off the boat, or we'll never get anywhere."

Guzman stays sitting on the boat while glaring at Komachi, so the shinigami shrugs and says "fine, if that's how you want it, I'll just..."

Komachi starts rocking the boat to try and knock Guzman off, but the vile soul, even after death, grabs Komachi by her arms and tries to force himself on her with lustful intent, saying "if I am to leave like this, I'll be sure to enjoy myself first!"

Komachi glares back into Guzman's white eyes while pushing him away and says "oh, you just messed up real good you pathetic-"

The thundering voice of Shikieiki Yamaxanadu echoes from the sky as she says "Komachi, leave this soul to me! You have an appointment at the Lunarian's clinic."

Without much effort, Komachi frees herself from Guzman's grip, flies to the sky while saluting toward her right, then says "oh that's right, I almost forgot! Thank Eiki-sama!"

Komachi disappears in an instant, and almost immediately a blue bolt of lightning strikes the water next to the boat, and once the light dims, Shikieiki reveals herself, floating to the boat's right.

Guzman stares at her without showing the slightest bit of emotion, then says "great, another flat-chested cutie with powers. What do you want?"

Shikieiki's eyes glow with fury, making her power felt to Guzman, who grunts as though in pain, then all stops when she says "you will remain silent, you insolent man!"

Guzman tries to scoff, but quickly realizes his voice won't come out.

Shikieiki raises her golden sword to cover her lips, then says "you. She gave you more than you could have ever wished for, including her heart, and you destroy her spirit, force her to confront you, force her to commit one of the greatest sins, one you enjoy committing over and over, and you couldn't even give her your name."

Shikieiki gets closer to him to make sure their eyes meet as she asks "isn't that right, **Ivan Guzman?**"

* * *

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Budou, Phredia, Kyo, Luna, Agava and Guzman were created by Willie G.R.

Ail Spell Cards:

Dragon Sign, Blue Dragon Claw, and

"Darkness, Dance of the Black Lights" (Yami, Dansu no Hikari Koro) [Japanese name by Snapshot 2010], were created by Willie G.R. Any similarities are strictly coincidental.

Rika Onkamikami and Suzaku were created by Snapshot 2010

Rika's Spell Cards:

Thunder Sign "Indignation no Shouou Jin'eizan" (Divine Thunder Assault of Indignation), and

Quick Silver "Kouryuu Metsugasou no Zanryu Roueijin" (Savage Radiant Dragon Fang Fury), were created by Snapshot 2010.

NOV 5 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**So, did you think this was going to end like the others? Guzman, after all he did suddenly changes? Though I wish it were, even for a vile soul as he, some things just can't change, unless THEY want to. He obviously still believes that what he did was right, so I doubt he'll be changing his mind... or will he? Let's see what Eiki-sama has in store for him. And what about Kyo, I wonder? Well, we'll see. Thanks for reading and hope you have enjoyed this story so far.**

**Oh, and just letting you know beforehand. Once I am done here, I'm going back to my happy, random, laughable stories, and will be making lighter incidents. Yeah, I think it's about time for that. Well, action and a bit of drama for balance is ALWAYS a must *smiles*.**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N:**

**NOTE that I'll be referring to Guzman's past self as "Ivan", while keeping the name of "Guzman" for his present self to avoid confusion.

* * *

**

Winter morning at the Hakurei Shrine.

It's been two days after Guzman's death, and still, a sense of gloom overpowers the sense of peace the tranquil falling snowflakes are trying to set in.

Rika walks out of the shrine with a pained smile on her face, and after taking a deep breath of air, she says to herself "oh my. It's still no good after all. Ah, I better get to my chores before lady Reimu gets here. That should help me think about something else..."

She turns around to look for the snow shovel, but pauses for a moment under the doorway to think.

In her mind, a vivid image of Luna and Medicine flashes before her eyes, both looking enraged.

She suddenly remembers when Eirin, Reisen and Kaguya approached the girls with a small brown pot, and a most unwelcome suggestion. 

_The afternoon before, Eirin approaches Luna, and with worry in her voice, she says "miss Rivers, if I may... I talked it over with the princess, and she has allowed me to offer you a choice. Keep in mind, what I am about to suggest is not something easy for us, so please listen carefully."_

_ Medicine approaches Luna's left and now both girls glare at the Lunarians standing in front of them, throwing suspicious glances as the brown pot being held by Reisen. _

_Eirin sighs and says to herself "better get on with it", then loudly says "Princess Kaguya has allowed me to offer you the use of the Hourai Elixir on Kyo, if you will allow it." _

_The entire room remains silent. _

_Ail twitches as he looks out the window next to Kyo's bed, Marisa, who sits on one of the chairs at the small waiting room near the exit, lowers her hat to cover her face and looks at her feet, while Reimu, who sits on the chair next to Marisa's, shoots an indignant look toward the aliens._

_ In the center of the room is Rika, who froze in place after Eirin approached Luna, wanting to make a suggestion of her own to save Kyo, and now waits to hear what Luna has to say._

_ Luna stares suspiciously into Eirin's eyes for a shot while, then says "I've heard that name before. The elixir of immortality, am I right?" _

_Eirin nervously nods and opens her mouth, as if wanting to say something, but closes it up and waits. _

_Rika is not sure about the others, but she knows that she, Reimu and Ail can feel the intense rage swelling up inside Luna and Medicine, more evident on the poisonous doll youkai as her poison starts seeping through her joints like sudden bursts of steam. _

_Trembling while trying to sound as calmly as she can, Luna looks at Eirin and says "you take that away from us. I'd never do that to Kyo. Really, suggesting that might as well be a fate worse than death itself!" _

_By now, Luna is unknowingly raising her voice as her rage continues to swell up, and loudly continues "I will not accept such a thing! It's dishonorable for my Kyo, and I am sure he'll agree. Thank you miss Eirin, but he'd never forgive us for it. Nor will he forgive anyone for trying something stupid like sacrifice themselves, just that he can l-... live!" _

_Luna starts to cry again, and Medicine angrily says "there, you happy now? Geez, you people need to th-" _

_Before she finishes, Ail opens a small gap, places his hand through it, and covers the youkai's mouth while turning away from the window to sternly look at her. _

_Luna storms out of the clinic, looking very distraught, her eyes red and puffy once more, she scowls and angrily says "I-I'm sorry, I need some air!" _

_Rika gulps after seeing Luna's reaction, and after what she said, she decides to keep her suggestion a secret. _

_She watches as Eirin sighs and turns to Reisen and Kaguya, then signals Reisen to take the pot away, while shaking her head at Kaguya. _

_Reimu approaches Rika, places a hand on her maid's shoulder, then says "don't feel bad. It's their decision, and we must respect it. All of us. No matter how painful it is."_

Back at present, Rika stands in front of the donation box with the snow shovel on her hands, yet she stands still, staring at the snow piling up on the ground behind the large red gates.

She sighs as she returns from her thoughts, then says to herself "well, any moment now", then starts shoveling the snow off the trail leading to the shrine.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Human Village, Ail is helping the villagers rebuild their houses along with Suika, Kasen, Yuugi, and even Mokou, who keeps surprising Keine with her visits to the village.

All Mokou ever says when Keine asks is _"don't get too excited, I'm just lending a hand, then I'm gone again when this is over"_, making Keine giggle each time.

Sanae and Budou help Minoriko and Shizuha set up a small farm on the ground nearby for growing some vegetables and grains regardless of the snow, helping restore some of the food that was destroyed during Guzman's last attack.

Once Budou finishes planting the next set of seeds, Shizuha calls "alright Ail, whenever you're ready!"

Even though Ail is helping with some of the houses constructions, placing barriers for support while the men nail the walls and roofs in place, he turns around with a smile on his face, walks over the small farm, then places his hands on the ground to manipulate the flow of energy, and help the seeds grow.

Minoriko uses her blessings for a plentiful growth, and with this combination, from just a couple of seeds, numerous vegetables and grains grow in just an instant.

Meanwhile, Keine, Maribel and Renko, with some help from Yuugi when she's not helping hold up roofs, pick up the harvest, then quickly take them to separate buckets near the school, where the people calmly pick what they may want and need.

While all this happens, Kasen runs around from side to side, exclaims "don't slouch or you'll injure your back! And you with the hammer up there, you're going to smash that finger if you-"

There is a sudden crunch, the man screams, Kasen slouches, face palms and sighs, then loudly says "I warned you!"

All continues to go smoothly, until Reimu and Suzaku arrive, landing between the houses and the small farm.

The moment she lands, Ail's concentration wavers, and some of the barriers he made to hold the houses flicker for a moment.

Reimu looks around as if greeting everyone, then looks at Ail with a pained smile and says "thirty burials in two days... and...", then looks down to the snow and finishes "and one more..."

Again, Ail's barriers flicker, but by now, the villagers have managed to nail the walls and roofs he was holding up.

Suzaku suddenly tweets as though singing, then says to Reimu "mom... it's time. We need to be there, for his sake."

Reimu twitches when Suzaku tells her this, then looks at Ail, who closes his eyes and nods, then turns around and loudly says "I'm sorry guys, but I need to be somewhere."

The villagers all acknowledge him, and one of them says "go on, we can finish on our own. Thank you for your hard work."

Ail nods, then turns around with a pained pale face and says "alright, let's go."

He opens a gap just like Yukari's, though this one has black ribbons instead.

Sanae and Budou rapidly walk to Ail's sides, hold on to his arms, then the small group goes inside the gap, followed promptly by Reimu and Suzaku, then Suika rushes in just before the gap closes up.

Meanwhile, at the Hakurei Shrine, after finishing with the cleaning of the porch floors, Rika tosses a thick cloth into a bucket filled with water, swipes the sweat off her forehead, then says "phew. I didn't realize this porch was so dirty."

Right after she says that, Ail's gap with the black ribbons opens up to her left, then Suzaku telepathically says "master, your presence is needed here."

Rika gasps with surprise, then rushes to the left side entrance, walks inside the shrine, and looks around.

Mima sits on the usual corner of the wall closest to the donation box outside, but instead of laughing and drinking or eating, she just sits there while staring to the far wall at the other side of the shrine.

Rika softly asks "m-miss Mima, would you like to come with me?"

Mima remains as she is for a few seconds, then slowly moves her head left and right.

Rika sighs, then says "well, you know where we are, so you can drop by whenever you want."

Mima remains as she is, so Rika simply walks away, closes the sliding door, and just as it snaps in place, Mima picks up her ghostly tail, wraps her arms around it until she balls up, then sadly whispers "hunk..."

* * *

At Eirin's Clinic, tension is high as they wait for Kyo to finally fall into eternal rest.

Though they all know what is to happen, it is impossible for either one to resist falling into sadness, and that includes both Reimu and Marisa.

To everyone's surprise, Marisa has been there the whole morning with Luna, but her reasons for this are kept a secret.

Inside the clinic, while Eirin and Reisen respectfully remain behind Eirin's desk, only moving when checking on Kyo, Luna and Medicine remain by Kyo's sides, each holding on to one of his hands, while Su-San jumps from Medicine's to Luna's shoulder, and back again over and over.

Ail, Sanae and Budou stand by the end of the bed, looking at Kyo's face, although Budou looks at Kyo for a moment, whimpers, then hides behind Ail, burying her face on the back of his shirt.

Behind them are Reimu, Rika, Suzaku, Marisa and Suika, all standing quietly in place, Reimu holding back her desire to cry and quietly praying.

Rika tries to follow her mistress' example, but she can no longer hold herself back and shouts "please, let me use the Four Elemental Life Seal on him! It could save his life!"

Everybody turns around to look at Rika as she continues "it's a very special seal. I could safe-guard his soul so we can heal his body without having to worry about time! Look, it's simple, we just-"

Budou suddenly sobs, then cries "too late! The silver is up!"

Ail's heart starts beating hard and fast as he slowly turns around to look at Kyo, and quickly activates his Yozoragan blood limit to see what Budou sees.

Immediately he notices the silver lifeline that maintains Kyo's soul in his body slowly separating itself from his friend's body and taking off to the skies through the roof.

A tear escapes his left eyes along with a quick sob, then is followed by Luna and Medicine.

Reimu loses her concentration and quickly turns to Rika embraces her, using her shoulder to hide her face, while Marisa hides hers with her hat, and Suika simply looks on with a sad and stern face.

Rika remains with her mouth open for a while, then slowly closes it up and returns Reimu's embrace, failing to notice Suzaku is flying around the room, perching on the curtain rails for a second before flying to the next.

Sanae wraps her right arm around Ail and makes him bend down along with her so that they both can hold on to Budou, but just before she sinks her face between them, she looks up at Kyo and gasps.

Ail opens his eyes wide, looks to Kyo, then asks "wait... what's going on?"

Eirin and Reisen were about to go to Kyo to cover his face, but stop in place, then Eirin asks "what is it? Ail, speak already!"

Both Ail and Budou stare at Kyo from the ground, and as Ail stands up, he and Budou say at the same time "it's not moving", then adds "his lifeline... it's just floating there."

Everyone in the room remains silent with shock evident in all their faces, including Suika's.

Luna and Medicine both look expectant at Ail, then Medicine asks "so out with it? What does that mean? I-is he coming back?"

Rika suddenly asks "my lady, what are you doing?", and when they all turn around to look, Reimu sits on the floor in a meditative state, crossing her legs under her skirt, and sternly says "better get comfortable, or it's going to hurt."

Everyone in the room looks at Reimu with surprise and express their confusion, and just like that, the entire room turns black.

Suddenly, Luna's voice echoes around, as though over an endless cliff, asking "hey, wh-what's going on?"

Marisa, her voice echoing as well, asks "Reimu! Isn't this... that cave?"

Everybody's voices echo as they express confusion, but suddenly quiet down when a light starts shining in the middle of the room, and Suzaku's voice comes through, sounding clear to all as she says "nobody panic. Just listen to her."

There is a moment of pause, and very suddenly, Komachi appears in the middle of the darkness, smiles, then says "heh-heh, sorry about this folks, but the amount of energy needed was staggering, so I'm just borrowing some from you while I tend to business."

Eirin asks "and what business would you have in my clinic, other than to take Kyo's soul."

Komachi's smirk stretches far, almost reaching her ears, as she says "we are not in the clinic, miss doctor."

Marisa gasps and exclaims "I knew it! It's the-"

Kyo suddenly appears where the little ball of light was floating just a second before, then Komachi, while still holding her wide smirk, says "the Road of Reconsideration!"

* * *

At the Sanzu River, Shikieiki continues to fly to the right side of Komachi's boat, covering her mouth with her golden sword, which is also known as the Rod of Remorse.

She looks at the pale image of Ivan Guzman, who has somehow managed to keep the shape of his body, though it's almost white, as well as his eyes.

His hair remains black, and his face clean from any stubbles he may have had before.

He opens his mouth wide, as if trying to scream, but nothing happens, so Shikieiki glares at him and says "court is now in session. Sinners are not allowed to speak while I rule out their judgment!"

Tall wooden stakes rise from the depths of the water, along with a massive podium where Shikieiki now stands, Komachi's boat stretches out and expands until it becomes the floor, and behind Guzman, a large door forms, then slams itself shut, causing the bang to echo all over the dark courtroom.

Before he can move, his arms and legs are shackled, and his entire body becomes trapped by massive rusty chains that coil around him and squeeze him tight, their weight threatening to push him through the floor itself.

Once the courtroom is set, Shikieiki taps on her podium three times, then loudly says "Ivan Guzman; in just a single lifetime, you took more than a staggering number of lives, tortured said souls before finally finishing them off, raped, stole, lied, destroyed lives, families, broke minds, abused those weaker than you, and still, here you are, not feeling a single ounce of regret."

Guzman stares back at the yama with defiance, causing her to slightly lose her temper, bang on her podium with her golden sword, and loudly say "you even dare challenge me? Clearly you still don't know who you are dealing with, and perhaps a small demonstration might show you some much needed **humility**!"

Seemingly screaming that last word at the top of her lungs, Shikieiki's eyes start glowing with intensity with a red glow that threatens to burn Guzman's skin, yet he remains as he was, glaring straight into the yama's eyes.

Shikieiki sighs and calms down while sitting on her large chair and rubbing her forehead, then says "words and threats alone won't work, so how about something else? How about we go back to your past?"

Guzman opens his eyes wide with surprise when he suddenly finds himself on a grassy field near a large, but run down farm with dried fields, a handful of live, but shaggy and dying farm animals, and at the end of it all is a white two-story house with a few broken windows, moss growing over the side of the house, and a dirty black roof filled with holes, and one of those even contains a large bird's nest.

Running toward the house is a happy young child with black hair, red skin, who wears light blue shorts and an oversized white shirt with dirt patches all over the chest and back.

Shikieiki sighs and says "you were happy with such a simple life, and so you constantly ignored the call of life. You were a very strong soul, and you had a very important task, so life had to take away that which stopped you from moving on."

Suddenly, a bright image of a tired-looking woman with little, but long dark-orange hair that reaches just below her shoulders, and wearing a dirty blue short-sleeved shirt and long white skirt appears at the door of the house, leaving Guzman with a pained and shocked look on his face.

She looks at young Ivan with a pained, motherly smile, and as soon as he reaches her and gives her a hug, she giggles and asks "Ivan, dear, how was your day?"

Young Ivan giggles out loud, but before he answers his mother, Shikieiki asks "what would she think if she ever saw you now? See what you've become? What do you think your mother, Ina, would say if she knew about all the things you have done."

The entire scene suddenly changes to a dark, and seemingly peaceful night, and from inside the house, the cries of young Ivan disturb the peace outside.

Inside the house, on the second floor, Ina sits on the ground with her crying child on her lap, and pushes herself away from a man in a black mask.

The man shouts "where are the papers?"

Ina screams "please, I don't know! Just leave me and my child alone!"

On the left side of her hip, Ina has a large gash made with a large kitchen knife that now sits on the chest of a dead man on the ground behind the thief a few feet away from them.

Losing his patience, the man pulls out a gun, points it at young Ivan, then says "either you tell me, or HE dies!"

The woman pleas for her child's life, but all the man does is shout louder while aiming his gun at the crying child.

Suddenly, Ina closes her eyes and whispers into young Ivan's ear "I'm sorry honey, but it's the only way..."

She looks behind the thief and shouts "honey, get the police!", getting the thief's attention.

While he is distracted, the woman uses all her strength to get up from the ground with young Ivan in her arms, runs to a window, gives her crying child a kiss on the forehead, and while he calls for his mama, she throws him out the window to the ground below, where he safely lands on a stack of hay.

The child quickly gets up and screams his mother's name, rushes to get inside, but there is a gunshot, and immediately, the entire house turns into a ball of fire that pushes young Ivan several feet away as it illuminates the dark night.

* * *

The image vanishes, leaving Guzman breathing heavily through the chains that now cover his mouth, then Shikieiki says "that fool forgot he broke the gas pipes and shot that brave woman out of rage. Don't worry about her, though. Her soul has been reborn already, and she's doing just fine... But we're not here to talk about her, are we?"

Shikieiki pauses to stare into Guzman's white eyes and notices some defiance in there.

In her hidden rage, she unleashes her energy, making Ivan feel like his entire insides are being squished like grapes, then it all abruptly stops.

Shikieiki flies off the podium to get closer to Guzman, revealing her Cleansed Crystal Mirror on her left hand, and shouts "and what is this? You still think you were right? You still believe what you did was good?"

She raises the Rod of Remorse on her right hand, where the words "Negligence" on one side, and "Disrespect" on the other, are written, then swings it down with all her might and strikes Guzman on the head from left to right, shouting "REPENT! Repent for your sins!"

After what seems like an hour, Shikieiki stops striking the vile spirit, stares at him with pity, then sighs and says "you still don't understand! Maybe this will help you understand."

Shikieiki's mirror starts glowing, and the scenery around them chances to a western school ground, where a slightly older-looking Ivan corners a smaller white child with light-brown hair, and angrily says "what are you looking at, brat?"

The small child starts to tremble, soils himself as young Ivan's shadow casts itself upon him, then sniffles and cries "I swear, I wasn't looking at you! I was just- BOOF!"

Before the child can even finish explaining, young Ivan narrows his eyes, glaring at the small child with pure hatred, then starts beating him up with his bare fists, not stopping until the child is a trembling mass of bruises and blood on the floor.

Shikieiki suddenly says "you started hating life, and so you bullied all of those weaker than you... and as you grew, you aimed higher, and higher, making all that surrounded you fear you, even those that tried to help, and not just those at school. You even managed to break that kind neighbor woman that tried to befriend you. You even when as far as to take her by force, then tried to make her commit suicide..."

The image of a young and happy brown-haired girl with bushy hair that reaches her back, wearing a brown t-shirt, a pair of cream colored shorts appears before them, and at first, she extends her arms down toward Ivan, saying "aww, what's the matter Ivan? Did you get into trouble again? Here, give me your hand and well go have some fun, and you can tell me all about it."

The moment Ivan grabs her hand, the woman's face changes to that of terror, then starts screaming as she is pulled down to the ground "wait, wait! What are you doing? No... I-Ivan, no... stop, NO~!"

That happy woman now trembles in a corner, covering herself up as best she can with the pieces of her broken shirt, her tears flowing down her cheeks while her face remains frozen and completely emotionless.

Ivan walks to her, throws a knife to her side, then spitefully says "here. You're ruined for marriage now. Go ahead. End it all now."

The image disappears, and Guzman looks down to the ground next to Shikieiki's feet, admiring her short white socks, making Shikieiki think he's feeling some sort of regret, but when he looks up with a satisfied look on his face, the yama loses her temper once more, though looks neutral, her eyes glow blood red, and Guzman starts getting smaller until Shikieiki looks like a tower to him, then feels as though his bones and organs keep getting crushed over and over again, yet he doesn't even fall out of consciousness and has to bare with the pain.

While her eyes glow, Shikieiki raises the Rod of Remorse once more, this time with the words "Disregarding Kindness" on one side, and "Abuse of Power" on the other.

She strikes his head with all her might, then shouts "REPENT! You completely destroyed that child's life, and you still dare smile! You even committed murder at that age and blamed it on others! You disregarded that woman's kindness and destroyed her life! REPENT FOR YOUR SINS!"

* * *

Meanwhile, at the dark Road of Reconsideration, Ail, Reimu, Luna, and all caught in the dark room, shout out to Kyo, Luna shouting a lot more excitedly than the rest.

Suzaku's voice echoes loudly as she says "calm down everyone. He cannot hear you! Please, just trust miss Komachi. She wouldn't do something like this if it weren't important."

Rika, her voice echoing all over, asks "Suzaku, what do you know about this? What is going on?"

Suzaku pauses for a moment, waiting for everyone to settle down, then says "first of all, our combined energies are empowering his soul so he doesn't fizzle away into nothing, and now mister Kyo, should he accept and win, will get a-"

Kyo looks around the darkness, yet he can see himself as clearly as daylight, and even the spot he stands on shines with a bit of light.

He notices Komachi's silhouette standing in front of him, then shouts "Oy~! Komachi, is that you? ...Hey, what's going on? Where am I?"

Komachi reveals herself to Kyo, glowing the same way as he in the darkness, then smiles and says "long ago... before you were reborn to this life, you and I made a contract. It's a bit sooner than expected, and honestly, this wasn't supposed to be the way, but it happened. Now, you have two choices..."

Behind Komachi appears a long road that seems to go on forever, surrounded by dark trees with beautiful red roses that grow like fruits.

Komachi smiles mischievously, then says "you can go on and continue down this road, reach Muenzuka, and so on until you reach to the Sanzu River... or..."

Komachi summons her scythe that appears on her hands, shining like a beam of light at first, until it takes its true shape, then she twirls it around, stabs the blade on the dark ground, leans on the handle, then looks at Kyo with a sweet, yet somehow mischievous smirk and says "you can fight with me, as we agreed."

Kyo looks at Komachi with surprise, and gestures his arms as though pushing away the air while saying "whoa, whoa, whoa! What the hell are you blabbing on about? Where are we? Who am I? And how come I know your name?"

Komachi chuckles, snaps her fingers, then a giant piece of paper with signatures made in blood appears in front of Kyo.

He stares at the paper for a moment and begins to read it, and just like that, he looks at Komachi with fire in his eyes, smiles, then says "I see, so I'm dead now. Well, now that I'm here, we can have our contest. And this time, we should be a little more even."

Komachi giggles, then says "well, my shinigami powers will always beat yours, but... if I don't use them, perhaps you'll have a better chance."

Kyo smiles and summons his sword, which appears on his right hand like a beam of fire, then takes the shape of a steel japanese sword with a flaming hilt, then summons his shield to his left hand, which appears like a powerful tornado that slowly flattens until it takes the shape of a round white shield with wind blowing from the edges like razors.

Komachi smiles back at Kyo, takes her scythe and pulls it off the ground, making the road behind her disappear, then points at Kyo and says "do you remember the agreement?"

Kyo shakes his head and says "some. I do remember that, if I lose, I'll have to serve YOU for an eternity. What if I win?"

Komachi takes a defensive stance, then says "why tell you now? Just know it's going to be VERY good for you. Still, it's not like I'll just LET you win. Hope you're ready to by my new go-fer boy."

Kyo smirks as he takes a cautious step forward, holding his sword sideways, and says "not a chance! I may not remember everything, but I do remember promising I wouldn't lose this time!"

Komachi and Kyo start circling around as she says "good, good, that's what I wanted to hear."

Kyo and Komachi smile at each other, then rush forth, raising their weapons above their heads.

Unknown to the two, Luna keeps shouting "KYO~! Don't listen to her! It's all a trick~! Dammit, why is he ignoring me?"

Suzaku sternly replies "miss Rivers, please understand that to them we are mere ghosts, and our voices cannot reach them. You just need to sit tight and watch. Without our energies present, Kyo will turn into nothing, so don't overexert yourself either."

Luna screams "you should have told me that sooner!"

Rika giggles, then says "but... she did."

* * *

Kyo swings his new sword sideways form the left, forcing Komachi to block with the blade of her scythe, then she flings the handle at Kyo's face, but he blocks with his shield just in time to avoid the impact, bends his back, and swing a kick at Komachi's knees, which she jumps to avoid.

Both Kyo and Komachi flip backward like a couple of gymnasts, and after recovering, both stare at each other with excited smiles, then Kyo says "that's how you got me last time."

Komachi chuckles, then says "you definitely gotten better. This is gonna be a long and fun fight after all."

Kyo chuckles, takes an offensive stance, then rushes toward Komachi with his sword pointed at her.

Komachi prepares her scythe sideways to intercept, knocks the tip of Kyo's sword away, twirls to the left, then swings her scythe with the momentum of the spin.

Kyo allows himself to get struck on the chest with the scythe's handle, uses the momentum to spin while close to Komachi, then lifts his left arm and smashes Komachi's face with his shield, making her stumble backward while holding her nose with her left hand, then Kyo waits for Komachi to recover.

The shinigami holds her nose and moves it around a bit to make sure it's in place, and after letting go of it, she stares at Kyo with both surprise and frustration, then starts twirling her scythe around while shouting in a high-pitched town "whoao~ Hooo-yaaooh~!"

Kyo laughs, then asks "are you trying to kill me with laughter."

Komachi loses her concentration, stick the blade of her scythe on the ground, and starts to laugh while holding herself up by supporting her arms against her knees, then says "so-horry! Ha-ha, I really need to stop joking around and start taking this a little more serious."

The second she touches the scythe to pick it up, her eyes glint, and her face becomes intense.

Kyo's face changes as well, and both intensity and excitement fill his eyes, then both lean toward each other and disappear from sight.

Small shockwaves appear out of nowhere at random spots in the darkness, and just like that, Kyo and Komachi appear again, both pushing their weapons against each other while smirking at each other's faces.

Komachi grunts, then says "you definitely improved from last time. I mean, in body you could have never been able to match me like this."

Kyo chuckles and starts to break a sweat as he replies "really? Then maybe staying as a spirit won't be so bad after all."

Komachi pushes Kyo away with a powerful swing, then rushes after him and swings her scythe downward, forcing Kyo to block with his shield while still on the ground.

Her smile is now gone, and looks at Kyo sternly as she says "oi, don't go saying stupid things like that! Life is too valuable! Even if you are weak in body doesn't mean you should disregard being alive."

Kyo chuckles, lifts his feet and places them behind the shield, then pushes Komachi away, making her tumble backward, though this time, he manages to spin on his back and knocks her on her back with a kick behind her foot.

He flips back to his feet and quickly points his sword at Komachi's neck, and with a calm smile on his face, he says "calm down. I didn't mean it that way. I'm just enjoying this too much, that's all."

He takes the sword away and offers Komachi a helping hand. She extends her hand and holds on, then smiles and says "sorry, I really thought you were thinking of making it permanent. Now, let's continue the FIGHT!"

She pulls hard on him and makes him roll away over her head, giving her a chance to get up on her own, while Kyo recovers his bearings.

While watching the battle, Ail suddenly asks "wait a minute, when did this happen? I mean... I never knew Kyo and Komachi fought before."

Suzaku quickly replies "this is just an old vermillion bird's intuition, but it might have been in another lifetime. I mean, if you noticed from before, that contract and the blood signatures look quite ancient."

Rika suddenly adds "ah, that's right. My lady, is that possible?"

Reimu calmly replies "it's possible Kyo is a reborn soul."

Marisa suddenly shouts and lets her voice echo around, then there's a long pause.

Sounding a bit embarrassed, Marisa chuckles, then says "sorry, I just wanted to hear my voice."

Medicine giggles, then says "you sound like a boy!"

* * *

Back at the courtroom, Shikieiki strikes Guzman one last time, making his ghostly body skip back after her last strike, even with those heavy chains holding him down.

After the beating, Guzman feels as though his head is about to explode from the strikes, yet continues to glare at the Yama of Paradise.

Shikieiki sighs, and sounding worried and desperate, she asks "what is the matter with you? How can you not feel even the slightest bit of regret? That child, that woman..."

Suddenly, Guzman finds himself back to regular size, and looking at the image of that school once more, and the image of himself holding a bloodied baseball bat while smiling down at his feet.

A young athletic boy lies on the dirt with blood all over his face, his face frozen as his lifeless eyes stare forward.

Shikieiki sighs, looking a little tired, then says "that was the second time you committed murder, and it made you forget your own pains. You started thinking how good that felt, and you wanted to do it again... but you got into a lot of trouble after that, didn't you?"

Shikieiki places her golden sword under Guzman's chin and lifts his head up to look straight into his eyes, then says "you were expelled from that school, but no, you weren't satisfied and wanted to feel better. That's when you took that young woman's kindness and used it for your own needs. How SELFISH!"

Guzman defiantly smirks, making Shikieiki shiver with anger toward him, but she simply sighs to calm down, takes the Rod of Remorse from under his chin, then says "why don't we have a look at what happened after you got deported from that island you lived on, and were forced to live in a place you hated. A place where the law wasn't as forgiving as that little island's..."

Shikieiki takes her mirror again and lifts it just above her face, then the image of a peaceful looking community replaces the bleak courtroom.

Two-story houses that sit next to each other, most painted in white with red roofs, all with ample lawns in the front, and each housing a family.

Ivan hated the sight, and felt sick at the thought of having to have his own house so close to his neighbor, a guardian assigned to keep an eye on him and take him down, should he break any of the conditions placed on to him to live there.

That day, he had a brush with his boss on the job that was force on him, another thing he hated about his new life, and as he goes into his own house, he glares at the guard's house to the right of his own.

That night, his temper got the best of him, and he storms around the house, breaking the wooden furniture and few electronic devices he possessed, and because of the racket, the silhouette of the guard form next door approaches his door and rings on the bell.

To Ivan's surprise, the voice he hears behind is door is that of a woman, who angrily shouts "what's going on in there? Open up this instant! Ivan Guzman, did you hear me? Open up, or I'm breaking down the damned door!"

Regardless of his surprise, Ivan grabs the broken leg from a chair and heads toward the door, thinking of bashing that woman's skull in, but the second he opens the door, he gasps and drops the weapon as his face turns white and his eyes shrink as thought in great shock.

Shikieiki stops the image and says "and for the first time in so many years of your '_miserable_' life, you felt your heart beat once more. Life gave you a second chance, but it saw fit to hit you hard in order to calm you down."

The image starts moving again, and on the houses porch stands a woman with little, but long golden-brown hair that reaches just below her shoulders, has light red skin and brown eyes, and wears a white t-shirt with a black skirt that reaches down to her knees, and has a peaceful and motherly look in her eyes, which is an evident feature, even in her agitated state.

The woman starts scolding Ivan, but all he does is just stare at her without even blinking, nodding at everything she says.

While this happens, Shikieiki says "Ilia Melendez, the spitting image of your mother. You couldn't believe your eyes. What surprises us most is how quickly you changed when she came into your life. She scolded you constantly, and you even glared back at her... but you followed her every command to a fault."

On the mute image, the woman can be seen angrily shaking her fist while shouting at Ivan, and all he does is glare at her, and like a reprimanded child, he'd follow her instructions with a pout, but actually enjoyed her company.

Shikieiki continues "the more she came over to scold you for something, the more you enjoyed her presence. This continued for almost a year before you finally revealed your feelings for her. One thing I still can't forgive is, even after falling in love and marrying that woman, you still felt no regret for your past deeds."

The words "Lust" and "Murder" are slowly written onto the Rod of Remorse, then Shikieiki strikes Guzman hard on the side of his head, almost twisting his neck backward, and shouts "even after experiencing true happiness, you still failed and felt no remorse for your actions! Repent now! Now that you remember that feeling, REPENT FOR ALL YOUR PAST MISDEEDS!"

* * *

After thirty more minutes, Shikieiki strikes Guzman so hard one last time, he falls on his face on to the ground, cracking the floor underneath him.

Shikieiki breathes through her mouth, though not out of exhaustion, but out of her own desire to hold back the feeling of rage that seems to be taking her.

Guzman struggles as he gets back on his knees, then Shikieiki rubs her eyes with her right hand, being careful not to hit herself with the golden sword, then takes one last deep and calming breath.

She takes her hand away from her face, looks at Guzman, and sounding a bit sad, she says "you and Ilia got married, and so she became Ilia Guzman. Not only that, a year after you two got married, you were gifted with your own daughter. A beautiful child you named Carmen Guzman."

In front of Guzman is the image of a small girl with dark-brown hair made into twin tails and brown eyes, wearing a light-blue overall dress with a white, short sleeved, buttoned shirt underneath, and a pair of dark blue boots that reach just under her calves.

The little girl looks exactly like Nitori, save for the fact that she looks a lot younger.

The name of his daughter rings over and over inside his mind, and her image in front of him makes him open his eyes wide, then a single tear escape his right eye.

Shikieiki sighs, then says "you spent so many years living as one happy family, and you had become an exemplary human being, following your life's plan... but then..."

Shikieiki sighs and looks into Guzman's heavily pained eyes, and feeling some sadness, yet looking as calm as ever, she says "...then one day, your past came back to haunt you."

The image of a shaggy-looking man with white skin and light-brown hair appears before them, then Shikieiki says "that boy you bullied on a regular basis came across you while you were at work. He couldn't forgive what you did to him, so he plotted to take revenge on you. Did you know he had gone mad for what you did to him? Such a pure soul, gone to waste because of YOU! He was supposed to become the world's most integral leader, but because of you, he had become a madman, and died as such!"

The image on the courtroom changes to one late night, when Ivan returns home from work. He feels something is not right when he doesn't hear the sweet voice of his daughter, of the adoring voice of his wife when his keys jingle as he unlocks the door.

The moment he enters the living room, he finds his daughter crying in the arms of the crazed man in a dirty white robe, covered in blood, yet the blood is not her own.

Rage and fear quickly take over Ivan's senses, and without thinking much, he shouts "CARMEN! You let her go this instant! Ilia! Ilia, where are you?"

The man stares at Ivan with a crazed face, cackles, then Ivan angrily asks "what did you do to Ilia, you son of a-"

The man smiles as he raises his finger at Ivan and says "ah-ah-ah~! Not in front of the child. Well, I'm sorry about your wife, but she tried to take me down, so... I had to take her down instead."

Ivan look with horror toward the bottom of the stairs that lead to the second floor, where the arm of his beloved hangs a few steps above the ground itself, with blood dripping down from her fingers.

Ivan's face twists with fear and hatred as he turns to look at the crazed man holding on to his daughter, then drops on his knees and begs "please! I'll give you whatever you want, just let my daughter go!"

The man cackles, his insanity even more evident as he does, then he grabs hold of the child, making her cry out in despair, which makes Ivan's rage swell up, then the man, laughing while speaking, says "kehehe! This scene is so familiar!"

Ivan suddenly remembers the child he used to beat up daily, then the man says "yes~! You do remember. How many times I begged you to just... _leave me __**ALONE**_, and yet... you went on to beat me to a pulp! My father called me WEAK, my mother got SICK of cleaning the blood off my uniform, and you kept going on, RUINING my life... Well, it's time to pay for what you did, so..."

The man takes out a gun and aims it at the girl's head, and the sound of her cries and screams just before the loud and deafening bang rings inside Ivan's head, rendering him unable to move; all he can do is use his arms for support as he looks to the carpeted floor and cries out "CARMEN! CARMEN, SAY SOMETHING!"

The man cackles as he looks at Ivan, smiles in a most disturbing manner, bearing his teeth as he gets up and walks closer to Ivan, then says "yes, YES! That's it! Feel the despair I felt back then! SUFFER! KYAHAHAHA~!"

Without any warning, Ivan spring to his feet with deep hatred in his eyes, grabs the cackling madman by his arms, pushes him against the wall, then the scene stops.

Guzman continues to cry while wrapped by his chains, and with a pained look in her eyes, Shikieiki says "such a terrible thing. It was painful, yes, but what you did afterward was NOT the right thing to do! You mutilated that man before you finally killed him, desecrated his body by performing black magic on it, he couldn't even make it past the Sanzu River because of you, and you weren't done there, weren't you? After that, you declared that life was a farce, that happiness was just a distraction to reality. You infused a gun with a very dark spell and started hunting humans, running from the law while taking lives, and if you couldn't kill someone with several shots, you'd torture them to their deaths with that dark spell, making the experience the same bullet wounds over and over until their minds broke, and THEN, you finally killed them. You managed to escape here to the east, keep yourself unknown, only giving out your family name, renouncing your given name, hunt down more humans and killing them with a smile, as though you were doing good, you became a real-life monster! You even looked to women as things, and used them as such, even those you hunted down! You defiled their bodies and spirits and then killed them in a most horrifying way!"

The words "Torture" and "Rape" write themselves in thick letters on each side of the Rod of Remorse, then Shikieiki swings it with such fury, and even before it strikes, Guzman already fees the pressure emanating from the swing.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the endless dark room, Kyo swings his sword from right to left, and Komachi blocks it with her scythe, then kicks Kyo on the abdomen, sending him flying backward through the air.

After he falls on his back, Komachi, who still looks fresh and ready for more, holds her scythe diagonally, smiles, then asks "so, giving up already? And here I thought this was going to be more fun."

Kyo gets up on his feet with a bit of effort, and although he looks just a bit tired, he smiles and says "I'm sorry. I was toying around too much. Let's see, hmm... I got it."

With a confident smile on his face, Kyo reveals a spell card on his right hand, which surprises Komachi enough to gasp and ask "a spell card? So you remember?"

Kyo closes his eyes and smiles as he sighs, then says "it's a bit blurry, but... my name is Kai... Kaizo Yumeda. Blech... but I still like Kyo better."

Komachi smiles mischievously as she reveals a spell card of her own, then asks "do you remember anything else?"

Kyo nods, then says "Ail, Luna, Medicine, Reimu... I know more people, but I can't seem to remember much more than those names."

Komachi smirks as her spell card starts to glow, then says "tell you what. Keep fighting with me so the memories can come back. If plenty of them do return, I'll have a surprise for you after this is over."

Kyo smiles as his spell card starts to glow, then looks straight into Komachi's eyes and says "deal. Now, let's resume our little dance."

Komachi hums, then says "alright", lifts her spell card and shouts "Spirit Sign, Abundant Floating Spirits!"

At the same time, Kyo raises his spell card and shouts "Flames of Elegance -Spread-!"

Komachi raises her spell card, and fifteen large ghosts appears from it and fly toward Kyo, but the young man is thrusting his sword so fast, his arm looks like one big blur, and from the thrusts, large blue fireballs spread about and fly in a random manner toward Komachi's ghosts, crashing against them and turning them to dust, then some of the fireballs make it to Komachi.

The shinigami screams and back-flips three times as fast as she can, then sends a second wave of ghosts to protect herself, but Kyo is already sending his third wave for blue fireballs.

Though unheard by the two fighters, Marisa exclaims "whoa, is he really moving his arm? I can't see it."

Budou replies "I think he is. He's using a whole lot of energy, so he must be."

Sounding a bit serious, Rika says "he is. He's thrusting that blade thirty... maybe thirty-five times per second. I didn't know he could move that fast."

Ail calmly comments "oh, it seems Kyo's got an admirer."

Luna suddenly shouts "WHAT? If you think I'm letting you near my Kyo-!"

Rika sounds nervous as she says "m-my lady, please tell them they are wrong!"

Reimu sighs, then says "kids these days. Look, you have to remember she only admires Ail-kun, so Ail, be a man and accept responsibilities, and Luna, you're Kyo is safe."

Sanae angrily shouts "WHAT~? What the hell is the meaning of this, Ail-kun!"

Rika whines as she says "miss Reimu, how could you?"

Ail groans, and sounding both tired and annoyed, he says "oi, oi! Reimu, keep the teasing to a low. You're ruining the mood."

Meanwhile, Kyo and Komachi continue their spell attacks, unaware of what their spectators are saying, and both looking as though they are enjoying each and every second of the fight, even though they are both evenly matched at the time.

* * *

Kyo's and Komachi's spells time out at the same time, then both immediately run toward each other with their weapons raised above their head.

They swing down at the same time and their weapons clash, then they push each other away and Kyo moves in for the attack, while Komachi still recovers.

He swings sideways down and Komachi blocks with the lower part of the handle, so Kyo twirls and tries a diagonal upward strike, but fails to catch Komachi off-guard.

She tilts her head sideways just in time, then swings the lower part of the scythe at Kyo's face, but he does a back-flip to avoid the attack and immediately rushes in to continue his assault.

Komachi grabs her scythe on one hand, then twirls it around with great agility and speed, forcing Kyo to stop his attack and protect himself with his shield.

There is only one strike, and Kyo notices quickly, but not in time to avoid the energy sent on the ground by Komachi, which explodes violently on his feet and sends him flying to the air, but even seemingly defenseless, Kyo strikes back.

He swings his left arm and sends his shield flying toward Komachi like a disk.

The shinigami smirks confidently, but her smirk quickly turns into a frown when the shield surrounds itself with a small, but powerful-looking green tornado.

She doesn't have the time to attack, and blocking will not help, so she tries to jump back, but the shield's tornado sucks her in during her jump and sends her spinning, while the wind itself cuts her several time as though blades were flying around it.

Kyo falls to the ground on his back, followed soon after by Komachi, then lifts his left arm and grabs the shield just as it returns.

Komachi rubs her head as she stands up, then chuckles and says "that was unexpected. Last time you tried that against me, I broke that thing in half."

Kyo slowly pushes himself on his seat, placing his arms behind himself for support, then chuckles and says "you were right. Being reborn and training as I have did pay off."

Komachi finally gets back on her feet, looking slightly tired and smiling as she says "I told you, I know my stuff. Next round?"

Kyo gets back on his feet, places his shield back on his arm, picks up his sword, then smiles and says "the decisive round."

They smirk toward each other, pull out a spell card each, then Komachi shouts "Death Price, Price of Life!", and Kyo shouts "Fire and Wind Sign, Desert Gales!"

Komachi sends a silver, and a golden coin at Kyo, and they immediately trail countless coins behind them as they start surrounding him and moving clockwise around him, all while Komachi herself throws more gold coins in various directions.

Meanwhile, without having to sacrifice his sword or shield, Kyo channels fire energy on his right hand, and wind energy on his left, and both energies fly and spin around him rapidly.

After generating enough speed, large fireballs start flying straight at Komachi in twirling pairs, while hot wind blades trail on the ground from Kyo's feet toward the shinigami.

Because of the swirling energies around him, Kyo is well protected from Komachi's coins, while the insane quantity of coins that trail after the initial coins, plus the coins Komachi is currently throwing, make Kyo's fireballs and wind blades disappear before touching her.

This same pattern goes one for almost a minute, and just as the spells time out, Kyo and Komachi jump high to the air, both raising their weapons above their heads, then swing down with all their might at the very same, time as they pass beside each other, then both land on their knees with their back turned to each other.

Kyo chuckles, and sounding tired, he says "heh, another draw."

Komachi smiles as she chuckles, and sounding equally tired, she says "I'll get you next round."

Both start chuckling for a moment, then both fall to the ground on their faces, both semi-conscious and breathing heavily.

Meanwhile, Ail's disembodied voice echoes as he says "and they're both down. Geez, I'm getting tired, and they're lying on the ground, taking a break."

Marisa replies "really, that's one seriously lazy shinigami."

A very familiar and sweet voice says "now miss Marisa, that's not a nice thing to say. They've been giving it their all after all."

At the same time, everybody exclaims _**"Byakuren?"**_

__The magician giggles, then says "hello everyone. I came to the clinic to pay my respects, but when I saw you all meditating like that, I had to join in. Though... except for miss Reimu, that's an odd way for the rest of you to enter the meditative state."

Eirin angrily asks "what do you mean?"

At the clinic, Byakuren sits besides Reimu, both sitting comfortably with their legs crossed under their skirts and their arms resting on their thighs and set beside themselves.

Ichirin and Unzan look desperately at everyone else, who all lie on the ground as though being knocked out, then Ichirin desperately calls "guys, come on! This isn't funny anymore! Wake up!"

Unzan looks at Ichirin, whispers into her ear, then she worriedly says "are you nuts? I'm not bashing my own head!"

From outside the clinic, there is a loud gasp, and when Ichirin looks outside, she sees Kaguya pointing at her while glaring and shouting "YOU! How could you attack them while they grieve? How disrespectful and dishonorable! That's it, you come out here so I can teach you some manners!"

Ichirin whimpers, then cries "bu-bu-bu... it's not what you think, I swear!"

* * *

At the courtroom, Shikieiki lands one last blow on Guzman's head, and after that, she takes two slow steps back to look at him.

Finally, after what seems like so long, Guzman is in a state of recollection, thinking back on everything shown and told to him during his hearing.

Shikieiki sighs as though disappointed, then says "you still don't see it... but at least you understood one thing."

Guzman looks up at Shikieiki with his shocked eyes as she says "your daughter's soul, like every other soul out there, was living not just one, but seven lives, each in a different dimension, all blissfully unaware of these many events."

Guzman opens his eyes wider and tears start flowing without stop, then Shikieiki, though feeling sad, she loudly says "that's right, you fool! That girl, that kappa IS one of your daughter's six remaining bodies! That's why, even now, after everything you did to her, she cries for you! She begs that your soul be spared from the punishment you are to receive! She cries out loud and calls the name you gave to her, unable to call you by your given name, something you didn't give her out of ARROGANCE! Your precious daughter doesn't care about this! She still pleas for a just hearing, and that is what I am doing here and now, and I'm not going to stop now! I want you to repent for all that you have done!"

Guzman continues to cry, understanding in his mind why he saved Nitori the day he saved her, why, in the end, he kept confusing her with his precious daughter, Carmen.

To him, this hearing is becoming the worst punishment he could ever receive.

The images of Ina, his mother, Ilia, his loving wife, and Carmen, his beloved daughter, all stand in the darkness he now understands is his heart, all have their eyes covered by shadow, and all extend their hands out to him to lead him to the remaining open door to the light.

He lets out a loud sigh and realizes that while inside his heart, he can speak.

While looking at the three figures standing before him, he whispers "mom... my love... and my sweet Carmen. You've been with me this whole time, haven't you?"

The three girls smile and nod as they extend their hands once more, so he slowly reaches for them, crying while saying "you forgive me. You forgive me after all I've done! I don't deserve you~!"

At the courtroom, Shikieiki stares into Guzman's eyes and has a good idea of what he's seeing, so she finally smiles, then says "and now that you are finally aware... the hearing can continue."

Guzman looks around and realizes he's still inside the dark courtroom, and this fact alone depresses him, yet he pays attention to the yama.

Shikieiki takes a deep breath, then says "so, you ran away from the west after you became a wanted man for all the countless crimes you committed, and somehow landed here over the east. Well, I'll let you know now it was not by chance you ended up here. You see, you were fated to come. Life knew your potential, and knew the great good you could do. You are a genius who regrettably undervalued everyone, yet you never underestimated them either. You treated everyone you hunted as equals to you, even when they were weaker in strength. You knew, and you still know that what one person lacks in one virtue, he or she makes up with another, to the point of rivaling yours! This is a great wisdom, yes... but you used it for all the wrong purposes!"

By now, though crying, Guzman stares at Shikieiki straight and doesn't blink, as if looking for something in her eyes.

Shikieiki notices, but simply paces around as she says "while hunting bounties here in the east, you happened to come across Ail's, another event fated to happen. You see, Ail was to lead you here, and he was supposed to help you take the right path once again. However..."

Shikieiki grips her mirror and gold sword so tight, her hands turn white, then she shouts "however, YOU came across none other than one of your daughter's bodies, saved her and cared for her without her knowledge, but you also USED her to your fulfill your misguided needs! You hunted Ail and made him and ALL around him suffer, but thankfully, fate intervened just in time, and you came across the angel that was to help you on the way to the light! Yes, that woman you called a **devil**, was actually **your** guardian angel, and she wanted to help, but all you wanted was to kill her, all because she made you remember! Well guess what, that is how you were supposed to heal, and she would have **gladly** guided you through it all, but you resisted and attacked, and attacked, and attacked, and you hurt her and those around her!"

Guzman now looks with fright as Shikieiki's eyes start glowing aquamarine as she glares at him with a macabre expression.

Shikieiki raises the Rod of Remorse once more, this time with the words "Angel Torture" in one side, and "Jealousy" on the other, and with a strong swing toward his head, she shouts "you even tried to kill someone far more valuable than yourself, succeeded in doing so by killing another bright soul brighter than yourself, and all out of spite toward those with 'better' lives than yours! REPENT FOR WHAT YOU HAVE JUST DONE!"

* * *

Shikieiki continues to strike Guzman's head as hard as she can, leaving the words on the rod imprinted on his soft ghostly skin.

As this happens, Guzman thinks "this stupid bitch keeps striking me with that blasted sword. Doesn't she know it hurts? Gah! Mom, Ilia, Carmen, can you help me?"

The three girls inside his mind, whose eyes continue to be hidden by shadow, smile in a most macabre way, their hair suddenly starts to sway as though caught on the wind, even though there is none, then point at another door behind Guzman, one glowing bright-blue, and feels more hot and intense than the one in front.

When he looks back at the girls, he realizes they are going back to the other door in front, waving at him while crying tears of blood.

Before he asks, Ina says "I'm sorry my son, but you just can't see the light. You'd go blind. I'm afraid all that is left for you, is to listen to this kind enma. She will do what is just and fair for you."

Ilia suddenly says "I'm sorry my love, but I really tried. Really, we all tried hard, but you refused the light for too long. Maybe this other light will make you see, so you can be reborn."

The word "reborn" plays over inside Guzman, making him feel sick as it does, and something inside of him snaps.

Carmen is the last to reach the door of light, and as she does, she says "bye bye papa~! Sorry I couldn't help you more. I hope to get to see you again someday, cuz I wanna play hide and go seek with you. I am very good at it."

Finally, Carmen enters through the door, and it immediately closes after she does.

Now all that is left is the burning bright blue door behind him.

At the courtroom, after what feels like hours, Shikieiki stops the beating, takes a deep breath while placing her hand over her forehead, then says "it's no use! What's the point of this? If I send you to hell before you repent, you'll never learn your lesson. What am I supposed to do here?"

Guzman suddenly replies "you will do NOTHING. I'll be the one to chose!"

Shikieiki opens her eyes wide with unbelievable shock as she gaps, and when she looks at Guzman, he stands tall while the chains that bounded him lie on the floor in front of his feet.

He wears long white pants held by a black belt with a small golden buckle, a navy-blue shirt under an open white sleeveless jacket, and wearing a pair of purple sunglasses over his now red and black eyes.

Shikieiki recovers from the shock and angrily asks "how? How did you do that? You're not supposed to speak! How can you even stand? You sins weigh so much, you shouldn't even be able to stand!"

Guzman scoffs and looks down at the yama, then says "you know, you almost got me there. I almost fell for your tricks and let myself fall back into the illusion, but thanks to my loving family, I realized, this... this life, this body, this world, YOU, everything is a LIE! An illusion created so that the people can be controlled like cattle! Well no more! I deny you, and I DENY this world, this FAKE life!"

Guzman turns around to the shut door, making Shikieiki get furious and shout "just wait a moment, who do you think you are? Hey, don't you dare turn your back on me! I'm not done with your hearing!"

She tries to strike him with her golden sword, but it goes right through him as though he was made of air.

Shikieiki gasps, then shouts "**you FOOL! What have you done! You completely reversed your purpose! You were meant to lead the people free from the oppressors of the outside world, no turn your back on life!"**

Guzman twists his torso just slightly, scoffs with a smile toward Shikieiki, then says "so you do know about the illusion. Well, I freed myself from it, and you can no longer touch me, you so-called yama. Good bye now. We won't be seeing each other ever again."

As he says this, he turns around and opens the door, Shikieiki desperately shouts "no, don't! Please stop! And eternity in hell is nothing! You can come back and try again, you just have to LISTEN!"

Guzman stops for a second, but continues through the door, and the first step he takes outside sends him plunging straight to the bottom of the Sanzu River.

The weight of his sins is so much, his body sinks as fast as though he was falling down a cliff at twice the norm of gravitational pull.

He hits the bottom of the river and continues to walk forward, even though he is drowning, and with a self-righteous smile on his face, he thinks "and now, I am free from the lies of the world."

He takes three more steps, then stops, and just as he starts feeling the desperate need to breathe, a giant brown fish swims by him and swallows him whole, and so, Guzman's soul is no longer bound by the rules of rebirth, a fate worse than hell.

Back on the water's surface, the courtroom is gone, and all that remains is Komachi's boat floating on the water once again.

Shikieiki lies on her hands and knees inside Komachi's boat, looking at the wooden boards with despair in her eyes.

She finally lets out her tears as she says "that fool! Why? How? I don't understand why would he willingly accept this fate? I just wanted to help! I wanted to help him see his mistake!"

She starts punching the boat with her right fist, striking the boards with the Rod as well, panting and saying "he could have been so great! He could have freed so many people outside this world! Open their eyes to magic and faith! Why? Why would he choose this? Hell would have cleansed his soul with righteous flames, but he chose oblivion instead."

She looks around herself with a desperate look in her eyes, then, as tears escape her eyes, she shouts "I just wanted to save you, you fool~!"

* * *

Back at the dark room, while Kyo lies on his face on the dark ground, the memories of his life start rushing into his mind.

He remember meeting Ail, helping him whenever he could, helping Ayalina retrieve him from the hospital, entering Gensokyo, meeting Reimu, drinking with Suika, Aya and Mima, and finally, his home, and spending his days with Luna, sometimes picking on Medicine, or teaming up with Su-San to play a small pranks on Luna.

By now, he sits on the dark ground with his legs crossed, placing his hands on his knees as he watches Komachi push herself up from the ground with her arms, then says "oy, Komachi. If I lose, will you let me see Luna, Medicine and Ail, at least one more time?"

Komachi rubs her head as she says "jeez, you're making me feel like a villain now. Anyway, that's no way to talk now! One more round Kyo! Give me your best shot, and as promised, I'll give you a little bonus, courtesy of Eiki-sama."

Kyo smiles and laughs to himself, then looks at Komachi, readies his shield on his left arm, takes his sword with this right hand, stands up, then says "alright then. Tiebreaker! No holding back!"

Komachi jumps on her feet, summons her scythe to her right hand, stares at Kyo with a confident smile on her face, then says "that's what I like to hear! Now get ready!"

Almost instantly, Kyo grabs the fiery hilt of the sword with both hands and holds it to his left, with the blade pointing diagonally to the ground.

Komachi stands where she is, smirking mischievously as Kyo gets closer, and just as he's close, she grabs her weapon to mimic Kyo's form, then swings upward with all her energy.

Kyo manages to keep up and swings his blade with all his might, and as soon as the weapons clash, both Kyo and Komachi are sent flying backward through the air, though both manage to flip, land back on their feet, then rush straight at each other once again.

Once in reach of each other, Kyo swings his sword sideways, Komachi swings downward, blocking Kyo's sword, Kyo tries a surprise shield smash on Komachi's face, but Komachi blocks with the scythe's handle, jumps high in the air, then swings her scythe around herself.

Kyo lets himself fall on his back, waits for Komachi's scythe to pass by, then skillfully pushes himself up with his arms and tries to kick Komachi away, but the shinigami matches the position of his feet and uses his kick to jump higher in the air, where the swings her scythe and sends four circular wind blades at Kyo.

Kyo lands on his feet after the kick attempt, grasps his sword tight on his right hand, and surrounds it with fire, swings it above his head, and bounces back the circular wind blades, infusing them with his own fire.

Komachi yelps and covers her face, and when the returned attack strikes, she feels as though she is being cut by a red-hot blade four times over.

After landing again, she runs around in a circle while smacking her chest and abdomen, trying to douse the flames on her shirt, then suddenly bends down and raises her left leg.

She nails Kyo's chin with precision, successfully defending herself from his attack, and make him tumble backward, giving her the chance she needs to fully recover.

Once recovered, she rushes after Kyo in an attempt to catch him while recovering, but to her surprise, even though he was still tumbling, he blocks her downward swing with his sword and uses the shock to balance himself and kick the back of Komachi's legs, knocking her to the ground again.

Komachi grabs her scythe by the handle's edge, quickly positions the blade behind Kyo, pulls it hard, then hits the back of his knees, which he deliberately relaxes so her blade doesn't cut them, but now lies face up on the ground along with her.

* * *

They match their movements and push against each other's feet, and after skidding far enough, they both flip back on their feet to stare at each other with intensity in their eyes.

Suddenly, they both start to chuckle, and quickly progress to laugh, each pulls a spell card from their pockets, then Komachi asks "sudden death?"

Kyo smirks, nods, then says "you're on."

Both take a deep breath, then both declare their spells at the same time.

Kyo shouts "Gales of the Bouncing Orb!", and Komachi shouts "Old Rain, Rain in the Afterworld Journey!"

Both are now flying, as the unseen ground seems to disappear, and Kyo's shield starts to glow until it looks like a glowing orb, then throws it like a disk to Komachi's left.

Komachi summons an odd and colorful rain of bullets of light-green, blue and red in color, but keeps her eye on Kyo's shield, while it spins around her, but doesn't attack.

The shield finishes drawing an octagon around Komachi, and as soon as it returns to Kyo's hand, four large tornadoes form inside the octagon, and start releasing blue petal shaped bullets that swiftly home in on Komachi.

The shinigami yelps after having to dodge so suddenly, then smirks and says "oh, so that's how you want to play. Take this then!"

She throws a slow, but long trail of golden and silver coins at Kyo, who dodges the raining danmaku by moving as carefully as he can.

The golden coins fly straight at Kyo, while the silver coins spread beside the gold coins, cutting off any blind spots and preventing escape.

Kyo has to make a sudden move, and is almost touched by a pair of red bullets, then yelps with surprise when another trail of coins flies straight at him, forcing him to make another abrupt move.

Inside the octagon, Komachi finds herself trapped between two blue petals and one of the tornadoes, so she takes her focus off Kyo while she finds another safe spot, but when she finally does, another wave of homing blue petal bullets fly straight at her from four directions, forcing her to move while throwing her coins at Kyo.

Kyo takes the chance while Komachi is distracted, and finds an open spot between the bullets, then waits for her coins to come his way.

Though not exactly aimed straight at him, the coins fly toward his face while leaving a long trail, so Kyo flies slightly to the right to avoid the golden coins and almost touches a silver coin, then yelps when he realizes a blue bullet grazes his back.

Inside the octagon, Komachi smiles with confidence and thinks "good. Just need to up my game and he's finished."

Without realizing it, she gets too close to one of the tornadoes, and by the time she notices, her leg gets caught in the powerful winds and gets sucked inside, where she's blasted by several blue bullets as she screams "waah~! Someone get me out of here~!"

Kyo raises his fist and thrusts his elbow down, exclaiming "YES! I got her!", but gets struck hard by a single silver coin on the head, just before Komachi's spell cancels.

He looks at Komachi with an embarrassed blush, but the shinigami is still inside the tornado and all cares about is escape as she screams "PLEASE, GET ME OUT OF HERE~! I'm going to HURL~!"

Kyo smile and sighs, then cancels his spell, but just after the winds stop blowing, Komachi says "urk! Too late!", and Kyo winces when the sound of her throwing up echoes into his ears.

* * *

After everything settles, Komachi and Kyo stand facing each other and shaking hands as though they were old buddies.

The road to Muenzuka appears behind Komachi again, and with a smile on her face, she says "now, according to the contract, you have two choices. You see, your coming to Gensokyo was no accident, and you know this by now, right?"

Kyo nods and says "it was all per life's contract. But now what? The blow to my body was too much. Even with your powers, I don't think it can recover. I'm not a youkai after all."

Komachi smirks and says "remember that bonus I offered if you remembered all this stuff? Well, Eiki-sama gave me permission to offer the following."

Komachi pulls out a scroll, and reads "if the subject proves to have a strong connection to his loved ones, and to his current self, should he win, you will offer him a second chance. Along with this second chance, you will offer the return of his full powers without the need of any amplifying item, full body restoration, and his flight ability."

After that, Komachi closes the scroll, throws it away like garbage, then looks at Kyo, who has glints sparkling all over his eyes.

Komachi frowns, then says "hold on though. You have the right to know this. If you chose to return with all your powers as they are at this very moment, you will no longer be able to leave Gensokyo. You, for the rest of your human life, will be bound to live here, kept alive by the concentration of magic and faith inside this barrier. The moment you step out of it, you will die, and..."

Kyo's face fills with doubt and worry, then Komachi continues "well, you will be stronger than any other human, much more resistant to magic and physical attacks, but you'll remain a human, and die at a young age, though you'll last a little longer than normal humans."

Komachi looks around the darkness, then shouts "you hear that you guys? I hope you will all support him, no matter what choice he makes now!"

Kyo narrows his left eye, then asks "did you just lose your mind?"

Komachi giggles, then points to the darkness around themselves, then says "Luna, Medicine, Ail, Reimu, Rika, Eirin, Reisen, Marisa, Sanae, Budou, Suika and it seems that magician from Myouren, Byakuren, have been watching our fight, keeping your soul from turning to dust with their energy. That's how much they care about you."

Kyo looks around the darkness with a surprised face, then looks down with his eyes closed and a smile on his face as he quietly chuckles.

Komachi smiles as she says "so now that you know how much they care for you, I ask you, what path will you choose?"

Kyo looks around some more with a smile on his face, then look at Komachi and says "I think I'll choose..."

The entire room is slowly covered by a blinding light, and the last thing seen in there is Kyo, smiling as he gets consumed by the warm and bright light.

* * *

At Eirin's clinic, everyone starts to slowly wake up, starting with Ail, Reimu, Suzaku and Budou.

Ail and Budou slowly get off the floor with their hands almost simultaneously, then watch as everyone else start waking up around them.

Eirin and Reisen pop their heads out from behind the desk, looking dazed and drowsy, Sanae fakes falling asleep again, just so she has an excuse to rest her head on Ail's lap, Marisa and Rika sit beside Reimu, who has Suzaku waking on her lap, then Marisa says "oi Reimu, you should have told us to get ready, ze."

Reimu looks at Marisa while Suzaku tweets at her, then calmly says "I did warn you. You were all just too slow."

Suika stands beside Marisa, and with a smile on her face, she offers Marisa some sake from her gourd, and says "sake will make it all good."

Byakuren opens her eyes and looks at Rika, the smiles and says "that was some experience, huh?"

Rika rubs her head and nods as she sits on her knees, then says "yeah, it was... hey wait, where's...?"

Everyone turns their attention to the now empty bed, and Luna and Medicine, who stand by the bed's side, looking sadly at the bit of blood left behind by Kyo's body on the bed sheets.

Everybody frowns at the sight, and just as Rika was about to say something, they hear Kyo's voice outside, being as loud as ever as he shouts "geez, will you leave her alone already? I already told you what happened anyway!"

Ichirin cries "you tell her big brother!"

Kaguya replies "then why are they all still spread out all over the floor like that?"

Outside, Kyo flies in between Ichirin, Unzan, and Kaguya, holding on to the same shield he had when fighting Komachi, glaring back at Kaguya while shouting "dammit princess, just give them a moment! They're about to wake up!"

From the ground, next to the clinic, everyone looks up in disbelief at the sight, then Eirin suddenly shouts "my princess, please calm down. We are all fine."

Kaguya looks down and smiles with a gasp, then exclaims "wow, so they were telling the truth! Oh, I'm so ashamed of myself."

Kyo and Ichirin groan inward, then Kyo face palms and says "and I just woke up too."

Down on the ground, everyone's eyes glisten against the afternoon sunlight as they look up at Kyo with bright smiles on their faces.

Kyo slowly descends, and with a tender smile on his face, he softly says "hey guys. I... I'm back."

Ail raises his right arm, then he and Kyo shake hands while bumping their elbows, then Ail automatically gives his friend a hug and with a cracked voice, he says "you bastard, don't be so reckless!"

Just after Ail lets him go, he realizes even Reimu wants to just hug him, but even though she's hidden between the others, Kyo's eyes reach Luna's.

The moment their eyes link, Luna and Medicine fly straight at Kyo, crying out loud, trying to speak, but choking on tears, then Kyo kneels with them and says "I know, I know. It's alright now. I'm alive and well."

Before they finish their group hug, everyone else, except for Eirin and Kaguya, all jump and join in the hug, all expressing their happiness for Kyo's well being.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Sanzu River, Komachi flies above the water while worriedly saying to herself "it's impossible for Eiki-sama to be giving her lecture out here. She should be with him at the courtroom. I wonder what... oh!"

She finally comes across her boat, and sitting inside while holding on to her knees, is Shikieiki, looking a bit stressed while thinking to herself.

Komachi quickly descends and lands on her boat, grabs the yama and gives her a tight hug, then says "I'm here Eiki-sama! It's ok! You did your best Eiki-sama, and don't you dare question that! Whatever happened is not your fault!"

Seemingly in a trance, Shikieiki calmly replies "I just wanted him to see his faults, so that he could do what he had to do in the first place. But he turned it completely around. He... he renounced the circle of life and jumped inside the river... willingly. Komachi, why?"

Komachi lets go of Shikieiki, slowly leans back on to the other side of the boat, then casually says "Eiki-sama, some souls are just like that. All they see is that straight line in front of their faces. Those souls also like to make other souls suffer. That man was even more vile than that Eiki-sama. He knew who we were, and yet he dared defy us, me by trying to have his way with me, and you..."

Komachi pauses to look at Shikieiki's thoughtful face, then places her hands behind the back of her neck and casually says "you know what Eiki-sama, you shouldn't let that bother you. He didn't deserve it. Besides, you know how fate is. If he can't carry out the task, it will fall on someone else. Someone much stronger and with a purer heart."

Shikieiki slightly reacts to Komachi's words, opening her eyes a bit wider, but remains silent.

Komachi smirks as she looks to the sky, then says "ah well, I'll just have to take a few days off while you recover."

Shikieiki immediately recovers her usual calm face, stares at Komachi, then says "oh, so you think I'll take time to recover, so you'll take this as a vacation."

Komachi chuckles and shrugs, then Shikieiki takes a deep breath, then says "Komachi, this won't do. You are a shinigami, and as such, you need to do your job right! Why, this sort of behavior does not suit one as you. And what would people think of me as well? I'm your employer, and thus, your lax behavior reflects poorly on me, and such a thing is just unforgivable. Come on, start working and row already! Really, this is the kind of thing I'm talking about. You need to pay more attention to your surroundings! What if you were ferrying a soul right now? What do you think...?"

As Shikieiki continues with her lecture, Komachi chuckles to herself, then says "that's my Eiki-sama."

Suddenly, Shikieiki gasps and asks "oh, speaking of your job, what about Kyo? How did it go?"

Just as they reach the shores to Higan, Komachi looks back to Shikieiki with a confident smirk, then asks "do you really need to ask?"

Shikieiki smiles, then says "I'm glad then. At least we were able to save one soul from an untimely death. I'm so glad."

* * *

That night, during a terrible snowstorm, two tall figures surrounding a smaller figure enter the place where Guzman was last alive.

A young girl hurriedly whispers "come on, come on! It should be around here!"

A woman angrily replies "calm down, geez! You're worst than Yumemi!"

A calm man's voice says "oh, I found it... The tengu left it here after all."

The young girl's voice sighs, then says "good then! Come on, let's go back. She'll be waiting for this!"

The woman suddenly exclaims "oh look, I found the hat! Should we take it?"

The little girl hums for a moment, then says "sure, why not. Might be very helpful! Still, she'll be glad we found these. Now come on, we REALLY have too much to do already, so no more waiting around!"

As they fly away, the man calmly says "we could be doing some rather fascinating experiments about now, you know. I hope she's thankful!"

Meanwhile, somewhere near the frozen Misty Lake's shores, there is a familiar silver-colored tent resting on a clearing next to various dried trees.

From inside, Agava says "come on girl, you need to snap out of it! We told you we'd help!"

Inside the tent, Nitori lies on her stomach on the bottom bunk bed, burying half of her face in the pillow and looking very miserable, while Rumia and Agava stand beside her with worried faced.

Agava now looks like a short eighteen year old because of her return to fifty percent of power and the enhancement she did to her chest with Nitori's invention.

Her hair is now a bit less wavy, and wears it in a ponytail that reaches down to her upper back and ties it with a black ribbon.

She wears a black vest over her violet ninja suit, which still only covers down to her thighs, wears a matching black skirt that reaches to her knees, and wears a pair of ankle-high boots that have a light-brown fluff at its upper border, and she now wears her remaining amplifier around her left wrist.

She holds Nitori by her shoulders, shakes her around, then says "come on girl, we three can do it! I mean... it would take a while, but... the point is... umm."

Rumia quickly says "the point is, we want to see you do something other than mope around."

Agava quickly adds "that's right! Another thing is, your other kappa friends! They must be worried sick, so let's go to the forest and-"

Nitori starts to sob, then says "I don't deserve *gulp* to go back home! Not after what I did! Not after ignoring them and their warnings! Even grampa!"

Rumia smacks the back of Agava's head, then asks "see what you did now?"

The tent's door suddenly opens up, then Letty peeks around and asks "excuse me ladies, did you happen to see three fairies around here?"

Outside the tent, Cirno can be heard a she angrily says "when I get my hands on them, ooh~ I'm going to declare WAR! That's what I'll do to... um, why... um, why am I so mad again?"

Letty giggles after Agava and Rumia shake their heads, then says "oh, these three fairies went into this ice fairy's house and messed the place up real badly."

Outside, Cirno screams and shouts "that's right! They destroyed my house! I'm going to make them pay after I get my hands on them! JUST WAIT AND SEE!"

Agava looks at Letty, then says "could you shut the door already? It's getting cold in here."

Letty giggles, then says "but the weather outside is just wonderful! You should join us."

Agava and Rumia share worried stares, but neither say a word, and just wait until Letty closes the door on her own, saying "suit yourselves. I'll just make it colder then!"

* * *

Meanwhile, at Eintei, after Mima was told of Kyo's return through Ail's regular gaps, she has been clinging on to him so tightly, not even the enraged Luna has been able to pull her off her man.

In the living room, next to the large kotatsu, Luna wraps her hands around Kyo's waist, glares at Mima, who holds on to his neck with a content smile on her face, then shouts "and don't you DARE think you're coming back home with us, you old ghost. Kyo's all mine tonight, and you're NOT spoiling it!"

Kyo chuckles and says "come on Luna, even Mima knows she has to respect our privacy."

As if ignoring them both, Mima simply rubs her left cheek against Kyo's right, hums, and whispers "hunk..." making Luna glare back with rage.

Near the kitchen, Keine and Maribel laugh amongst themselves, while Renko sighs and says "I'm so glad it all worked out. I would have really missed him if he had..."

Maribel smiles widely as she places a hand on her friend's right shoulder, then says "aww, I would have missed him too, Renko. But really, if this is how you were feeling before, you should have told us."

Kasen jumps out of nowhere and says "that's right! Letting your feelings known helps your body relieve stress, and thus extend your life a little more!"

Keine adds "I couldn't have said it better myself! Thank you miss Ibara."

Kasen laughs, then says "my pleasure miss Kamishirasawa!"

By now, Renko's face is so red with embarrassment, even her ears start turning red, and while she tries to hide it, she mumbles "next time I'll keep my mouth shut!"

Meanwhile, near the inside gardens, Ail and Sanae hold each others' hands while looking into each others' eyes then Sanae says "really, I'm so glad it turned out so well. Seeing you like that hurt me so much."

Ail whispers back "I'm sorry Sanae. It's just, I guess my friend just so important to me... as are you, and Budou, and..."

Sanae places a gentle finger on Ail's lips and gets her face closer to Ail, but both stop and look annoyed toward the smirking faces of Reimu and Marisa, who sit by the garden's porch, keeping their necks twisted as they stare.

Ail asks "Reimu, what would Rika say about this behavior of yours?"

Reimu points to her right, then Ail spots Rika sitting between them while holding on to Suzaku, forcing herself to not cover her ears, then whimpers as she says "I'm sorry mister Ail! My lady's orders!"

Ail and Sanae sigh, then Ail says "it's fine, it's fine. Don't feel bad."

Sounding infinitely annoyed, Sanae groans and says "were used to this already, so it's alright."

Budou suddenly comes flying from the inner rooms with Phredia flying to her right, looking a little tired. Ail asks "wow, Budou, what happened? Did you get lost?"

Budou lands right next to Ail and Sanae, leans against Sanae's waist, then says "y-yeah. Th-this house is a maze!"

Ail notices some snow on Budou's teal hair, then suspiciously asks "lost, huh? And where exactly did you go young lady?"

Budou twitches, then sighs and says "well, I was going to tell you guys anyway. The thing is, papa, mama..."

* * *

To Be Continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenarios belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Kyo, Luna Rivers, Agava, Budou, Phredia and Ivan Guzman, Ina, Ilia and Carmen were created by Willie G.R.

Kyo's spell cards:

"Flames of Elegance"'

"Fire and Wind Sign, Desert Gales", and

"Gales of the Bouncing Orb" were created by Willie G.R.

Rika Onkamikami and Suzaku were created by Snapshot 2010

NOV 11 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Finally, it's over. Now all that's left is Nitori. Well, it's time I went back to the crazy stuff, so expect some gradual randomness happening over the next chapter, and the triumphant return of the washtubs! GOSH I miss those! Ah well, hope you liked this chapter. Shikieiki's scenes were HARD for me. Had trouble finding the right words. I think I got them right. Ah well.**


	19. Chapter 19

Morning at the Myouren Temple.

Byakuren and Ichirin arrive to the temple after having to stay at Eintei because of the snowstorm the night before.

Snow has piled up all over the temple grounds, and Minamitsu, Nue and Kogasa are doing their best to shovel the snow to create a path to the temple again, however, Kogasa keeps messing up by trying to surprise Nue by shoveling snow over her head 'accidentally', and causing Nue to rage and chase her around for a few minutes before Minamitsu sets them straight once again.

Byakuren smiles at the sight, though a drop of sweat rolls down her cheek, revealing her displeasure, then looks at Ichirin and Unzan, and asks "Ichirin, Unzan, could you give them a hand down there?"

Ichirin and Unzan both salute Byakuren while staring at her very seriously, then Ichirin sternly and rapidly says "will do Hijiri nee-san! Come on Unzan, let's show them how it's done!"

Ichirin and Unzan rapidly fly down, and Byakuren now smiles more gleefully when she hears Minamitsu sigh with great relief and says "finally, the cavalry has arrived. Ichirin, do something about these two, please."

Meanwhile, inside the temple, in Shou's room, the tiger youkai falls on her back, and quickly finds herself facing the blue-skinned fairy and pushing her away from her face, shouting "no, no, that's wrong! You don't BITE!"

After hearing the word "bite", the little fairy happily nods, opens her mouth to reveal less jagged, but still sharpened teeth, then bites Shou's left forearm.

Shou screams, mostly out of fright, winds her right arm, then strikes the fairy's head so hard, the tainted creature is knocked unconscious.

Shou pushes the fairy off and flinches when she falls hard on the floor to her left, then whispers "whoops, I need to be more careful. Ugh, but why is the cleansing not working?"

Though sitting on the ground, Shou jumps high to the air when Byakuren, who is right behind her, abruptly asks "hey Shou, how are things going?"

Shou lands on her arms and knees, trembling violently while looking with fright at Byakuren, then says "L-L-Lady Hi-Hijiri! I didn't even feel you presence!"

Byakuren just sits on her knees and returns a bright and warm smile at Shou.

A few moments later, Byakuren holds the unconscious fairy's head on her lap and combs her red hair with her hand.

Shou sighs, looking slightly embarrassed, turning away from Byakuren while kneeling on the ground, as she says "the first day was a complete success and we manage to return her innocence, but after that, I haven't been able to make any progress at all."

Shou sighs as she turns around while still on her knees, then points at a brown bowl of soup and says "and what's worse, my Jeweled Pagoda isn't shining anymore either. Maybe I lost my touch."

Byakuren continues playing with the tainted unconscious fairy's hair, and smiling at Shou, while a large drop of sweat rolls down the back of her head, she says "Shou... that's a bowl of soup."

Shou chokes for a moment, then stares at the bowl of soup for about a minute, then finally, after realizing what she is seeing, she gasps with panic, then shouts "L-Lady Hijiri~! I lost the Jeweled Pagoda again~!"

Byakuren simply giggles, but doesn't reply, all while Shou clenches her fist, closes her eyes, then says "it was probably when I squeezed it hard when I wanted to keep it safe in my hands."

The word "squeeze" echoes over and over inside the fairy's head, then she wakes up, turns around, then grabs Byakuren's chest.

Shou chokes again, then immediately runs away to the farthest corner of the room, while Byakuren smiles motherly at the fairy, then a loud explosion rocks the door to Shou's room, taking it off its hinges.

Standing on the center of the living room with an annoyed look on her face, and throwing the Jeweled Pagoda to the air and catching it with the same hand, Nazrin sighs as she face palms, then says "both master and lady Hijiri have such lovely personalities. Really, my life would be so boring without them..."

Byakuren's happy voice reaches Nazrin's ears as she says "my, that fairy has a strong grip."

Nazrin only sighs once again, then sways her tail around while walking toward her master's room.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Human Village, Maribel and Renko exit Kyo's house with disappointed faces, and form inside, Medicine says out loud "I'll let him know as soon as he gets here!"

Renko replies "thanks Medi! We'll appreciate it if you did", then closes the door and says to Maribel "I guess he's already as energetic as always."

Maribel sneezes, and when she looks at Renko, she has her cat ears exposed as she casually says "you know how he is. Now he's got renewed vigor, so it's only natural- KYAH~!"

Maribel feels a pair of arms wrapping themselves around her waist, then is suddenly lifted to the air, while Mima exclaims "CUTE KITTY~!"

She rubs her face against the desperately frightened Maribel's, then starts rubbing her face against her cat ears, making her relax in an instant, then says "ahh, if Reimu would let me do this to Rika's wings, I'd be in heaven."

Renko sighs as she calms down, face palms as she shakes her head and asks "Mima, what brings you here?"

Flying next to Renko as she makes her way home and rubbing her face against the overly relaxed Maribel's cat ears while holding her by her waist, Mima casually replies "well, I tried hugging Rika, so Reimu got mad, so I got scared, then I came here and decided to visit that neighbor girl of yours. She did survive, right?"

Renko looks at Mima through the corner of her eyes, then says "don't pick on her too much. She got hit pretty bad by one of those disks, and one of the other villagers gave his life to save her. She heard he had a kid too, so she's pretty depressed about it."

Mima moans in disappointment, then says "I guess I better keep the teasing to a minimum."

Minutes later, upon arriving to their house, Renko gasps and exclaims "Kyo, Ail, Luna! What a surprise!"

Mima stares casually toward Renko and Maribel's house, lifts Maribel's blissful face, then says "you got visitors cute kitty."

Ail and Kyo fly beside the house, and while Ail supports the outer and inner walls, and the roof with small, thin rectangular blue barriers, Kyo nails down a lose board that was about to cause the whole roof to collapse.

Luna stands on the ground, looking up as though supervising their work, then looks back at Renko, frowns, then says "hey, I know you're just girls, but if you let the snow pile up on the roof like that, it's going to come down on you."

Renko's cheeks turn a bit pink from her embarrassment, but Ail calmly says "aww, it's alright now. No need to scold them."

Kyo quickly adds "still, it's dangerous if they let that happen. This one here was about to fall."

Ail sighs with a defeated face, then says "I guess you're right."

Ail looks toward the girls and asks "hey Mima, could you _not_ pick on the villagers yet?"

Mima sets Maribel back on the ground as gently as she can, and with an annoyed face, she says "hey, I can do whatever I want. I am just choosing not to, but ONLY because you asked so nicely..., but if I were in a bad mood, ohh~ those villagers better watch out for me!"

Ail smiles at Mima, knowing well she's hiding her true feelings, then chuckles and says "then I thank you for your kindness Mima-sama."

Feeling elated because of Ail's comment, Mima takes a proud pose and smiles, while Luna glares at Ail and points into her open mouth while sticking her tongue out, telling Ail she feels sick about his poor choice of words.

Suddenly, a small sparrow flies just above the house, dropping a load just above where Kyo and Ail where working on, then chirps rapidly as it heads toward the east, straight toward the Hakurei Shrine.

Ail stares at the bird as it disappears from sight, then says "it's mister Sparrow. I wonder what he wants?"

Kyo groans, then exclaims "oh, now he shows his feathery butt! Where the hell was he when we needed his help?"

Maribel sits on the ground like a cat with a very content look on her face, then says "don't ask such dangerous questions."

Ail nods, then says "that's right. Besides, that bird can do whatever it wants."

Ail starts to shiver and looks around as though afraid of something, then says "he's got power and more, so just let him be."

Kyo scoffs, then says "you big chicken. Oh, and speaking of which, you and I need to have a fight."

Luna flies up to Kyo so fast, she knocks Ail right out of the sky so that she can glare directly into Kyo's eyes, then says "don't you dare start fighting yet! You are NOT risking yourself until I am sure you are at one hundred percent!"

Kyo rolls his eyes around with a groan, then says "geez, what a pain."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu flies down from the roof with a very satisfied look on her face, and carrying two large painting brushes, and two buckets of paint; one pink, and the other dark-green.

Rika walks out of the shrine with a smile on her face and a broom on her hand, but as soon as she sees Reimu flying down the roof with the buckets of paint on her hands, she frowns, gasps, then exclaims "my lady, if you wanted to roof painted, I could have done that for you!"

Reimu chuckles and smiles at the distress maid, then says "relax! I was just expressing myself artistically. Now, could you clean these up? I want to make some tea."

Rika leaves the broom leaning against the wall, then happily picks the buckets and brushes and says "don't worry my lady, I'll clean these AND prepare some tea for you in a flash!"

After saying that, Rika closes her eyes to concentrate for a second, then disappears from sight, leaving a bright trail behind her, then there is a loud crash at the shrine's storage room, quickly accompanied by Rika's scream.

Suzaku lands on Reimu's shoulder as the maiden winces after Rika's crash, then says "she's still practicing I see", then looks at Reimu and asks "Mom, don't you think you're asking for trouble?"

Reimu chuckles, sighs, then says "it's alright Suzu-can. It's just a harmless joke."

There are sudden quick and repetitive chirps coming from the tree to Reimu and Suzaku's left, then Suzaku immediately takes flight with fire in her eyes.

Reimu crosses her arms under her chest and shoots a stern look at the tree branch, then says "so now, after all is said and done, you decide to show up! You know, we REALLY could have used your help! Do you even have any idea what happened around here anyway?"

The bird starts to chirp rapidly, then Reimu angrily says "bah~! Enough with the chirps and just speak to me already!"

On the branch is the little, but rather dangerous Rabid Karate Night Sparrow, as called by those whom he has attacked before.

With an elegant tone of voice, he says "as rude as ever, I see. I missed talking to you."

Reimu scoffs while glaring angrily at the bird, then angrily says "cut to the chase. What do you want?"

The RKNS pauses for a moment, then says "I am aware of what happened around here, but, as ironic as this may sound, I had to be elsewhere. I just came by to let you know I am here again... but don't think anything's changed. Cross me and I'll kick that cute little human butt of yours around."

Reimu smirks evilly and asks "oh really? Don't you mean you were- Wait, hold on."

Reimu turns her full attention to the shrine's roof the second a faint whoosh reaches her ears.

From high above the sky, Tenshi plunges straight at the center of the roof with a content smile on her face on a large keystone.

Spee, who is being followed by Girlie, both angels of heaven and former shadows of Suwako and Shinki, tries to grab hold of Tenshi while shouting "no, no, you idiot! That's not a-!"

Tenshi crashes against the reinforced shrine's roof, her keystone crumbles below her feet, and her body tumbles down hard by the force of the impact, making her limbs look like flimsy twigs as they flail around in the air.

After everything settles, and the smoke from the shattered keystone clears, Spee face palms, while Girlie clicks her tongue and shakes her head, and Tenshi moans loudly in pain, and with a pained and loud tone of voice, she says "that peach was a LIE~!"

From the back of the shrine, Rika says "so that's what you were doing, my lady! Miss Reimu, what if she got hurt?"

Reimu just laughs and rolls around on the snow, saying "she-she-he's fine!"

Unable to speak properly, Reimu resumes her laughter, while Rika runs from the storage house and flies up to the roof.

Rika sadly says "miss Tenshi, I can't believe you fell for something like this."

Almost crying, Tenshi replies "but it looked so real!"

The two angels fly down to meet Rika as she looks down and says "oh my, it really is very realistic."

After calming down, Reimu stands up, chuckles for a bit, then looks up at the RKNS with a challenging smile, then says "like I was saying, you fluffy sparrow, I think you were just scared. And don't even think you'll have your way with us around here anymore. Your days of terror at the shrine are OVER!"

The RKNS ruffles his feathers, then says "how rude! I think I best teach you a lesson again, miss maiden!"

Reimu flips her hair at the bird and turns her back on him, making him furiously chirp as he puffs up, then he lunges straight at the maiden with his beak aimed at the back of her neck.

Long before he can even touch her, three fireballs blast the tiny sparrow off the air, and as soon as he crashes on the ground next to Reimu, Suzaku appears on top of him, placing her left claw on the little sparrow's body.

She glares into the RKNS's eyes, then angrily says "if you think that you'll lay a single feather on anyone around here, you are SORELY misguided little sparrow! Ugh, those feathers! You need to preen yourself more often, but you're probably too busy picking on others to do that, aren't you?"

When the little sparrow takes a better look at his attacker, his little black eyes turn to large pink hearts, and with a rapid tweet, he telepathically replies "hello, what have we here? What a glorious and magnificent-looking specimen you are!"

Suzaku squawks, her beak begins to shine, then it turns silver, sharper, and much more pointy.

She aims the dangerously sharp beak at the little sparrow, then angrily says "I just infused my beak with an earth spell. Want me to test it on you?"

The RKNS's eyes return to normal, he nervously tweets, then shakes his little head and nervously replies "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Forgive me my lady!"

Suzaku's beak returns to normal, she removes her claw from the little sparrow, allowing him to flip on to his feet, and while Reimu rubs the vermillion bird's head, she smirks while looking at the RKNS and asks "like our new shrine member?"

The RKNS simply tweets once, bows at Suzaku, then flies away with haste.

Suzaku looks at Reimu, then says "I'm going to have my wings full with that one."

Reimu rests her chin on her right hand, looking lazily at the little sparrow as it disappears from sight, then casually says "eh, just ignore him as long as he behaves. He's a good ally."

From the roof, Rika looks down with a distressed look, then says "my lady, Tenshi is trying to gnaw on the peach."

Reimu suddenly starts to laugh, and immediately drops on the snow to roll around and laugh away.

* * *

Later that day, in front of the gates of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, where Kimi and Kali seem to be trying to pick a fight with Meiling, one of Ail's gaps opens up, and as though expecting them, Meiling claps her hands and squeals with joy.

Right after Meiling squeals, feeling disgusted, Kimi says "oi, this girl! Show some dragon pride!"

Kali stares into the gap as she waits for someone to come out, then asks "so, what's supposed to happen now?"

Meiling looks at the gap while whispering "maybe they got stuck?", then loudly calls "Ail, Rika, is everything alright?"

From the gap, Reimu's voice is hear loud and clear as she says "and remember, after you are done there, go with Ail and help them out a bit!"

They hear Rika happily replying "thank you so much my lady!"

Ail suddenly says "hey, it's open."

Rika replies "oh, let's go then", and in an instant, Rika jumps out of the gap with Girlie flying to her right.

Meiling smiles and exclaims "Rika, hi~!", then Ail jumps out of the gap with Spee flying to his left.

Just before the gap closes, Reimu can be heard saying "oh no you annoying celestial! You are helping me with the design! Now, Suzaku, please get me Hatate too. Oh, and call Ko-"

The gap closes up, then Kali runs away in panic and shouts "get her away from me!", then stares cautiously at Rika while hiding behind Kimi.

The jewel on Rika's sword glows brown, showing how frightened Kali is of Rika, so the maid looks at the shadow with a sad frown and says "w-wait, you don't have to be so afraid anymore!"

Kimi raises her right arm as she turns around to look at Kimi and asks "what kind of chicken shadow are you?"

Kimi points at Rika, looking like a frightened child, then exclaims "she cut me to shreds last time! G-get her away!"

Kimi laughs hard, then looks at Rika and says "well, she did take four whole nights to heal... and we did find her ear only last week, so... what the-?"

Kimi looks surprised as Rika bows down in front of her and says "miss Kimi, miss Kali, I'm so sorry! I swear, I didn't mean to do those things!"

Feeling both disgusted and embarrassed about Rika, Kimi grabs the maid by the back of her shirt with one hand, lifts her up, and sounding annoyed, she says "hey, cut that out! It was nothing anyway. Everyone has off days, so I forgive you."

From a tree farther away, the shivering Kali, who is in her shadow form, her long white hair shaking along with her blood-red eyes, says "sure, it was nothing to you because she didn't get you!"

Rika's sword growls, making Ail giggle and say "you're right, she's one big chicken. Then again, I'd be terrified if I get cut to pieces."

The sword roars a second time, then Kimi immediately releases Rika, kneels down and bows her head, then says "Savior Dragon!"

Rika panics and shakes her arms around while asking "hey, what do you think you are doing?"

The jewel on Rika's sword glows bright blue as Kimi lifts her head to look at Rika, then says "my loyalties lie with you as well, maid of the Hakurei Maiden."

Rika looks around nervously, and after Spee and Girlie both shrug at her, she looks at Kimi and asks "um, no offense, but I rather just be you friend, if that is ok."

Kimi blushes as she looks into Rika's eyes, then looks away and says "f-fine. Um..."

She scratches her left cheek as her embarrassment escalates, then stands up, clears her throat, then walks away toward the back of the lake, saying "s-say hi to the Hakurei Maiden for me."

Kali yelps when Kimi pick her up by the back of her neck, then the whimpering shadow and blushing dragon make their way to their home.

Meiling chuckles nervously, then says "well, at least they'll leave me alone. Now, please go inside. Miss Sakuya is waiting to escort you two to the main hall."

Ail and Rika line up and straighten themselves out, and while the two angels fly to their right, they salute Meiling as Ail says "thank you kindly Meiling!"

The gate guard chuckles nervously again, then signals them to just walk inside already.

As Rika enters the gate, she angrily says "and you stop making fun of others mister Savior Dragon! That wasn't nice!"

Meiling looks confused, thinking she is scolding Ail, but she gets even more confused when she sees Rika holding her colorful sword and glaring at it instead, then the gate guard opens her eyes wider when the sword starts to sweat.

Ail chuckles, unaware of Meiling's confusion, then says "come on Rika, give him a break. Even a sword needs a good laugh now and then."

Sounding a bit distressed, Rika replies "not at the expense of others. That poor thing is terrified of me! Now I have to make it up to her somehow!"

Spee sternly says "remember why we're here! Now let's go in already!"

Meiling sighs after hearing the door to the mansion open up, and after it closes up again, she says to herself "never a dull moment with those around here."

* * *

Once inside the mansion, Ail, Rika, Spee and Girlie are greeted by a teal-haired fairy that bows while flapping her wings to keep in mid-air, then says "miss Sakuya will be with you at any moment. Please wait here."

Ail and Rika thank the fairy maid at the same time, and just a few seconds after she leaves, Sakuya appears on the first floor balcony just above the foyer, then says "welcome to the Scarlet Devil Mansion mister Ail and miss Rika."

Ail and Rika look up with smiling faces, but frown when they look at the sad smile on Sakuya's face.

Spee and Girlie both stare at Sakuya with stern faces while placing their fists on their waists, and before either Ail or Rika can ask what's wrong, Sakuya says "please, come this way. My lady is waiting."

On their way to the main hall, the only thing making a sound are the footsteps of Sakuya, Rika and Ail, and wanting to break up the awkward silence, Ail raises his hand and says "S-Sakuya, it's al-"

Before he can say any more, Spee flies down to look very sternly into his eyes, then shakes her head.

Ail sighs and whispers "really? Are you sure?"

Spee whispers back "they have to do it properly. I want to see them apologize to you properly! Really, treating a friend like that. It makes me so mad."

Though they try to keep their voices down, Sakuya can hear them, and with a depressing shadow cast over her eyes, she manages to casually say "we're here. Please follow me inside."

Sakuya holds the door as the guests enter the room, and once they are inside, Sakuya promptly closes the door, and in an instant, she appears next to her mistress.

Remilia sits looking menacing on her usual tall red chair, and to her right are Sakuya and Patchouli, and to her left is Flandre, all three looking a bit down.

Ail smiles nervously and tries to speak, but Spee taps his head with her foot, then Remilia opens her wings in an intimidating manner to get everyone's attention.

With a wide and threatening smile on her face, Remilia says "Ail, Rika, ugh, you angels, welcome. Ail, so sorry I couldn't catch you over at the village. Still, you and Rika were dealing with something a bit more important. Now, down to business..."

Remilia relaxes her wings and her smile becomes a serious stare, and while looking at Ail, she says "I want to apologize for what my servants and my sister did to you. The Scarlet Devil Mansion does not dishonor a welcome guest in such manner, much less when I happen to have been the one to invite you here."

Ail smiles nervously and tries to say that it's alright, but Spee gets in front of him and stares angrily into his eyes.

Remilia crosses her legs, links her fingers and places her chin on them, then says "it's not 'nothing' Anilan! It is a disgrace to the honor of this mansion and to myself, so just be quiet and accept our apologies! Sakuya! Patchouli! Flandre!"

Ail swallows his desire to make them stop, then stands firm while Flandre, Sakuya and Patchouli walk to him, bow to the ground, then Flandre starts by sadly saying "I'm sorry Ail-nii! You are a good nii-san, and I shouldn't have doubted you like that."

Right after Flandre, Patchouli calmly says "I'm sorry about trapping you with that electric beam and smacking your around with my books like that."

Ail smiles nervously and scratches the left side of his head while saying to himself "that really hurt like hell."

After that, Sakuya, sounding more saddened than Flandre, says "I shouldn't have placed you on the same level as that _thing_ in the first place!"

She raises her head to reveal her watery eyes, and as she tries to hold back her desire to cry, she says "so please, accept my most sincerest apologies. I-I swear, it will never happen again."

Ail suddenly feels as though large red arrows with the words "made her cry" written on them, are going right through his heart repeatedly, threatening to end his life.

He manages to calm down, bows down, then says "apologies accepted, now please get up, you're making me feel bad."

Patchouli and Flandre get up on their own, though Flandre lunges straight at Ail, wrapping her arms around his waist, giving him a soul-squeezing hug.

Sakuya stays kneeling for a moment, so Ail offers his hand to her with a silly smile, then says "come now, it's alright now. Really, I'm happy that you apologized so sincerely. Thank you."

Sakuya looks up and smiles as she accepts the helping hand, then rubs her eyes with her left forearm as she gets up, then chuckles and says "g-got something in my eyes."

Spee and Remilia, who are now right next to Ail, chuckle amongst each other, then Spee says "see? This is how it should be between friends."

Suddenly, Rika shrieks when she realizes Patchouli is right in front of her face, staring at her with those unfriendly eyes.

Before Rika asks, Patchouli calmly says "Rika, so glad you could come. Please, come with me to the library. I need you to take care of something for me."

Girlie giggles, flies upside down, then says "Spee, I'm going with them!"

Spee nods, then says "don't let her out of your sight."

As they leave, Spee shouts "HAI~!", then the closes behind them.

Remilia and Flandre narrow their eyes while staring at Ail, making him feel even more uncomfortable than before, and before he can ask what's wrong, Remilia asks "can we see your wings again?"

A quick glint escapes the vampires' eyes as they both stare expectantly at Ail, all while Sakuya stands behind him with an embarrassed smile and a drop of sweat rolling down the left side of her head, and Spee stares suspiciously at the vampires.

* * *

Moments later, in front of the dual doors to the library, Patchouli stops Rika and asks "alright, I need to know first... did you, or did you not give Koakuma a copy of the Necklace of Harmonia?"

Rika gulps, then asks "um, wha... did something happen?"

Patchouli blinks her unfriendly-looking eyes, then says "just answer already, yes or no."

Rika looks away out of shame and softly says "yes..."

Girlie giggles and says "ooh, I smell a scolding!", then Patchouli simply sighs, opens the door to one hell of a messy library, then says "if you can catch that girl, I'll forgive you."

Rika's face freezes with a goofy smile, a blue shadow over her forehead, her wings spread open, sweat starts rolling down the back of her head, and her right eye twitches as the sight.

Shelves knocked to the floor, books and scrolls spread all over, papers floating all over the darkness, and the red blur of a little overconfident devil that's been causing this hellish mess zipping around the library.

Patchouli sighs, then says "took me years to make her so docile, but ever since she got that necklace, she's been playing pranks on me, and..."

Patchouli looks away as her face turns red, then says "...she's been stealing my underwear too."

Rika continues to look inside while in shock, then finally exclaims "th-th-this? She did all this? Little-sis Koa-chan?"

Patchouli nods, places her hand on Rika's shoulder to snap her out of the shock, raises her left hand to signal Rika to go in, then says "come, we have to stop her now before..."

Just as they take their first step inside, Girlie hurries before them, looking around with a curious face, and when Koakuma spots her, she stops with a terrified face, flapping her wings to try and stop before crashing against the angel, then shouts "you summoned an angel? You want to purify me, just because of this Patchouli-sama?"

Girlie giggles, then exclaims "purify you? Are you nuts? I wanna play with you!"

Koakuma stares at the little black-haired angel for a moment, blinks three times, then gasps with a smile and says "try and catch me!", then zips away.

Girlie squeals out loud, and as she starts chasing Koakuma, she shouts "I'm going to get you!", and now even more books fly to the air and shelves start falling one each minute.

Patchouli grabs her hair and pulls hard on both side as she roars, then looks at Rika and says "now look at what happened!"

Now Koakuma's red blur is accompanied by Girlie's white blur, and both zip around the library playing tag.

Koakuma swoops down, aiming her claws at Patchouli, then Rika jumps on the magician and knocks her to the floor, shouting "look out!", then she and Patchouli quickly crawl underneath one of the few standing desks.

Patchouli grabs one of the books in front of her to cover her head, then angrily says "stop them, or I'm writing this down on your permanent library record!"

Rika's eyes turn to two white dots with tears dangling from them as she whimpers "no~! I'll catch them, I'll catch them!"

Patchouli suddenly opens her eyes wide, clenches her teeth as she screams "mu-KYU~!", then Koakuma stands behind her with a pair of purple bloomer, snickering before loudly saying "purple bloomers GET!", then places them on her head and flies away.

Rika looks at Patchouli's red face and asks "um... want me to get you another pair?"

Patchouli's eyes turn white and her teeth turn jagged as she angrily shouts "just GET THEM ALREADY!", then coughs violently after that outburst.

Rika immediately jumps out of hiding, bearing her two extra set of white energy wings, then zips around even faster than Koakuma and Girlie.

The little angel yelps just as she disappears from sight, then Koakuma looks behind her with a confused face and asks "little angel?"

When Koakuma turns her head to look forward again, she grits her teeth, flaps her back and head wings, even though the latter are under Patchouli's bloomers, and tires to push herself to a stop while in the air with her arms and legs when she sees Rika right in front of her, staring angrily while crossing her arms under her chest and tapping her foot in mid-air.

Koakuma manages to stop an inch away from Rika, then tries to fly away again, but Rika grabs her by her arm and descends with the crying little devil.

Koakuma desperately asks "Rika onee-chan, what are you going to do to me?"

Rika smiles quietly and tenderly at Koakuma, though an ominous shadow casts itself over her eyes, making Koakuma's eyes turn to two tiny white orbs with long tears clinging under them as she wriggles her wide open mouth and wails.

Once on the floor, Rika sits on a chair, leans Koakuma over her lap, then raises her right hand, and with a smile on her face, she says "this hand of mine shines with burning justice! Punishment Sign, 100 Spanks in a Flash!"

A spell card appears right above Rika's hand, then turns into a pink flame that envelops the maid's hand.

Koakuma cries out loud as Rika winds up her arm, and suddenly, the sound of smacking flesh echoes all over the library.

The first strike causes the bloomers on Koakuma's head to pop right off, but instead of rushing to pick them up, Patchouli looks on with terror at the scene, her face turning blue and her stomach churning at the sight.

Rika's hand moves so fast that it looks like a blur as she spanks Koakuma, making her scream, flap her bat-like wings and cry loudly out of despair from the pain.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the main hall, Remilia and Flandre sit like two puppies on the floor while looking up at Ail with wide glassy eyes, trembling lips, and all while letting out a quick whimper from time to time each.

Sakuya stands next to the door with a look of ecstasy on her face, while Spee flies around with an angry face and says "and now you are trying manipulation? No, Ail, don't you DARE! Ail, are you listening?"

Ail looks up with a defeated frown, then says "but look at those faces! How am I supposed to say _no_ to that?"

Spee stops and groans as she rubs her eyes with one hand, flaps her left hand at Ail, and sounding annoyed, she says "fine, just do it already so you can get Rika and go help your little girl out!"

Ail cheers along with Remilia and Flandre, then says "alright, but just for a bit!"

Right after saying that, Ail closes his eyes to concentrate, then the ethereal dragon wings spring right out of his back, and after he opens his eyes, they look like a starry night sky, this time with random twinkling stars.

Remilia and Flandre both cheer and jump at the same time on Ail, knocking him to the ground, and now he has Flandre crushing his waist with a hug, while Remilia wraps her arms around his neck.

Outside the window, Ail can see a large black wing disappear, then says "oh-no... she didn't!"

Without his notice, Remilia closes her eyes as she starts sniffing around the left side of his neck, and without much though, she instinctively bites Ail hard.

Ail opens his left eyes wide, a star replacing the pupil, then he suddenly gets up and runs around in circles with Remilia biting down his neck, and Flandre still wrapped around his waist, screaming "ow, ow, ow, ow~! Sakuya, Spee, HELP!"

Sakuya continues to smile and now seems to be lost inside her world, while Spee angrily says "no, I'm NOT helping you. I told you to just go, but you wouldn't listen!"

Ail stops, then whines as he says "but that was just too much for me! Ouch! And besides, I want to be a good guest too!"

Remilia suddenly pulls her teeth off Ail's neck, jumps to the ground, coughs out some blood, then says "dammit, it's harder than I thought... er, I mean, I had enough! Sakuya, please bring some bandages."

Sakuya snaps from her elated state and is suddenly holding a first aid kit, saying "immediately, my lady."

A few minutes later, Ail, whose neck is wrapped in bandages that cover his bite wound, Spee, Flandre and Sakuya open the doors to the messy library, then Ail and Spee both look inside with surprise, while Sakuya and Flandre smile in shame and shrug while shaking their heads.

Though Koakuma and Girlie have been calmed down, and Rika has helped them lift most of the shelves pack up, the cluttered mess of papers, books and scrolls all over the floor is staggering.

Both Koakuma and Girlie look miserable as they pick up the mess made by them, and both have a pillow tied around their waist.

Koakuma looks particularly miserable, with tears clinging at the bottom of her eyes and all four wings hang limp, as though all her strength is gone.

Rika looks at the surprised boy and angel, then claps her hands together, winks, bows slightly, then raises her right hand finger, asking for a moment.

She approaches Koakuma, holds her shoulders, then asks "little sis, do you know why I had to punish you?"

Koakuma looks away from Rika with a pout and a scowl, then mumbles "I 'unno."

Rika sighs, pats the little devil's head, then say "because I gave you that so you would be safe from danger, and not for you to abuse its power and cause so much havoc."

Though still pouting and letting her wings hanging, Koakuma turns to face Rika with a sad face, then nods and says "I'm sorry, I was just having too much fun."

After seeing that face, Rika can't help but flap her little wings very rapidly and rub Koakuma's head as she says "well next time try to be a little more prudent."

Before continuing, Rika notices Koakuma looks a little surprised while staring behind the maid, so she turns around to see Patchouli and Girlie holding on to their bleeding noses, then turns around to notice Flandre, Sakuya and Spee smiling goofily and also bleeding through their noses, while Ail is looking away with pink cheeks and scratching his left cheek.

Before she asks, everyone says at the same time "it's ok! We're alright."

Rika shrugs, places a hand on Koakuma's shoulder, then says "Patchouli was kind enough to let you keep the necklace, but if you misbehave again, I'm going to take it away, you understand?"

Koakuma's wings suddenly lift up as she gasps and smiles, then nods rapidly, saying "I'll limit my pranks Rika onee-chan!"

Rika gives the little devil a quick hug, stands up, then waves at the girls as she approaches Ail.

Without questioning them, Spee enters the library, looking embarrassed while saying "I'll keep an eye on Girlie while she helps around here. You have a task of your own now."

Ail, Rika and Sakuya nod, then Ail opens a gap and says "Flan is going to help too."

Flandre giggles and says "I'm the demolishing supervisor!"

Rika sighs, then says "alright... it was tough, but everything seems to be back to normal here... hey, what's with the bandages?"

As they enter the gap, Ail asks "could you heal that for me? I got in a small accident and well... I don't want Sanae to see."

The gap closes up just as Rika replies "sure", then Suzaku reveals herself on one of the few windows of the library, pecking lightly on it and getting Koakuma's attention.

* * *

Moments later, Ail's gap opens up next to a familiar pile of rubble, at a very familiar underground cave.

Flandre and Sakuya are the first to fly out of the gap, followed promptly by Rika, then Ail.

Sakuya and Flandre stare at the pile of rubble before Sakuya says "wow, he really did destroy it. And my lady really liked this place too, so it's no wonder she allowed us to come and help."

The small party of four stands right in front of the remaining rubble from the collapsed entrance to Nitori's destroyed resort.

Most of the rubble has already been removed so the kappa, few working robots, and all those wishing to help rebuild it can walk through.

Ail sighs, then says "the kappa have done a good job removing most of the rubble, but there's still much to do before anyone can start rebuilding."

From the inside, Budou calls "papa~, miss Rika~, you made it~!"

Budou flies straight at Ail and tackles him hard to the ground, where she finishes hugging his waist.

She stands up and looks at Sakuya and Flandre, then smiles and says "yay, you brought help!"

Sakuya bows elegantly, saying "it's our pleasure", then Flandre asks "what do I get to break today?"

Sakuya lightly face palms and smiles nervously, thinking "the young mistress is full of energy today too. Hope she doesn't scare miss Budou now."

To her surprise, Budou smiles brightly and points inside the destroyed resort, saying "you see those huge rocks to the right? Please break them all."

Flandre laughs and eagerly makes her way to the large chunks of what used to be one of the apartment buildings, followed by Sakuya, who nervously says "re-remember young mistress, just the rocks!"

Flandre happily says "ok", and immediately shouts "KYUN~!" and various screams echo to the outside, along with a loud bang and the sound of crumbling rocks.

Nervous, Rika asks "are the kappa going to be alright?"

Budou flaps her little arm at Rika and says "don't worry, they're really tough. Now come on you two! Mama, Yumemi and Rikako are in the computer room. Miss Rika, you're good with machines too, so please, come, come!"

Ail slowly gets up while Budou grabs his arm and eagerly pulls on him, trying to make him hurry, to which he looks at Rika, shrugs, then says "alright, let's go then."

Meanwhile, inside the main computer room, Sanae and Kyo's shaggy lab-coat-and-glasses-wearing shadow, struggle with a metallic box.

While Sanae holds it, s-Kyo pulls hard on it, trying to free a large burned motherboard form it.

Rikako Asakura, the purple-haired scientist with long hair, who also likes wearing lab coats and glasses, and wear a thin white ribbon on her head, walks out from behind the largest monitor and stares at the two for a moment.

She sighs and lightly places her hand on her forehead, then casually says "unscrew the support screws, THEN you can pull it off."

Shadow Kyo lets go of the motherboard, making Sanae yelp as she tumbles backward, strikes his hand with his fist and says "of course! It makes sense!"

Sanae manages to stay on her feet, but looks at the shadow with a very annoyed face and says "you're supposed to be a genius!"

Before he answers, the door opens up, and Budou, Ail and Rika enter the room, where they are all immediately greeted by the crackling voice of Julia, who says "welcome. Please don't touch anything while Lady Nitori is out."

Ail and Budou look back at Rika and at the same time say "she always says that."

Rika doesn't reply, but Budou ignores this and says "oh that's right. After Rikako and Yumemi replaced some of the cables, I managed to stumble on some odd instructions, and now she occasionally says-"

Before Budou can finish, the crackling voice of Julia says "p-please get my m-memori-ries."

Budou points up with her hands and finishes saying "that."

Suddenly, from one of the largest machines with a small monitor, sounding a bit muffled, Yumemi eagerly says "EUREKA! I think I got it!"

There is a sudden spark, Yumemi screams, then the small monitor turns on, revealing a perfect schematic of the resort, and pointing flashing yellow arrows toward the hidden elevator that leads straight to the secret vault under the resort.

In the schematic of the vault, there is a pulsating yellow ring with the word "MEMORIES" beside it just outside the vault itself.

Budou gasps, points at it, then exclaims "oh, that's what she meant! Papa, papa, come on, let's get those! That hat did not work, but I'm sure this will!"

Before Budou runs excitedly out the door, Ail grabs her little arm and says "whoa, whoa, just a second. I need to know something."

Budou looks curiously into his eyes as he smiles and asks "why are you so eager about this? Why do you want to restore her resort so desperately?"

Budou's cheeks turn pink, but sounding resolute, she says "miss Nitori is a very kind person! She let me stay here while you were gone, and she kept telling me that I should be patient, and... she helped me out a lot too when you left papa! I want to help her now!"

Ail looks into Budou's eyes and knows talking about the time left hurts her, so he smiles at her, gently pats her head, then says "you're a very kind girl, you know that? But one more thing..."

Budou sighs and swings her arms against her waist, showing she's losing her patience, then Ail narrows his eyes and asks "how did you convince Rikako and Yumemi to help?"

A glint escapes Budou's eyes, just as a wicked smile takes over her face, then says "I beat them all and made them promise to help me..."

She gets closer to Ail's ear, then whispers "and I promised that if they try to escape, I'm destroying their computers."

A look of terror escapes Ail as he stares at little Budou, then nods and says "I see... You are very persuasive, Budou."

Budou giggles, then says "now come on, let's go get those memories!"

Everyone in the room agrees with Budou, then all leave the room one by one, Rikako being the last one to exit.

After everything quiets down, from inside the large machine with the small monitor, sounding muffled, Yumemi calls "hello~? Is anybody out there? Hey~! Hey, I'm stuck! Come one you guys, I'm really stuck! Get me out of here!"

With her crackled voice, Julia says "he-help is on the way. He'll be here in an min-hour."

Yumemi moans, then sadly says "I need to use the bathroom..."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the southwest shore of the Misty lake, someone has made a perfectly round hole on the ice of the frozen lake, and near the hole is Agava, who seems to be looking for someone.

The shadow youkai cups her hands over her mouth and calls "Nitori~! Where are you? We accidentally placed one of those metal cylinders in the spinning machine, and it exploded~!"

She scratches the left side of her head when there is no reply, then decides to look inside the hole on the ice.

When she looks inside, she gasps in horror and screams when she finds Nitori floating face-down on the water, with her hands and legs sunk in.

Agava hyperventilates and looks around in a panic, and of all the ideas that rushed into her head, she decides to poke the kappa's back.

After poking her hard, Nitori lifts her annoyed face, and sounding annoyed she says "I heard you already. I'm not fixing anything. I don't want to touch another machine again!"

Agava lets out a calming sigh, then says "it's ok, I lied about the thing there."

Nitori stares un-amused, then says "the _thing_ is a microwave... I already told you guys that."

Agava ignores that last statement and says "aww come on kappa girl, cheer up already. If you were to just try and go home, maybe have a look around..."

Nitori somehow jumps right out of the water, revealing her arms and legs are encased in ice, but breaks them off when she lands on the frozen water.

Though her hands and legs look blue, she moves them about as if nothing has happened, dusts her hands, then angrily says "I already told you, I can't go back! I'll be kicked out of there before I can even apologize, and I won't blame them for it!"

Agava sighs again, raising her hands to neck-height wile shrugging and shaking her head, then says "you're just being hard on yourself. Besides, I don't think kappa are that vengeful."

Nitori glares at Agava with such fierce eyes, the shadow youkai thinks she is seeing red dots in place of her pupils, then flinches with a terrorized look on her face.

Nitori turns around to head back to the tent, then says "I'll go take a nap. After that, I should find somewhere to build a home for myself."

After taking her first step, Nitori stops in place when a woman's voice echoes along with the gusts of a sudden snowstorm, asking "a kappa moving in to the lake without my permission? Now that is strange. Tell me, did it ever crossed your mind it would be too dangerous for you here?"

Agava looks up with a curious face, staring at Letty Whiterock as her semi-transparent cap sways along with the powerful gusts she creates.

Agava loudly asks "oi, what's your problem yuki-onna? We're not doing anything wrong here."

Before Letty answers, Nitori turns around with an enraged face, raising a spell card and shouting "Water Sign, Water Carpet!"

* * *

Agava flies away from the frozen lake, narrowly avoiding Nitori's raging water and bullet streams, while Letty remains flying in the same spot with a confident smile on her face.

She raises a spell card and loudly says "Cold Sign, Lingering Cold!"

The area all around Letty gets colder than normal, then large snowflakes start falling all around Letty, some forming various groups of three, while the larger ones appear to make a large bird made of ice that flies straight at Nitori's water spell.

The kappa doesn't seem impressed at first, but when her streams of water start slowing down, she starts to worry.

The cold is so intense, the magical streams slowly freeze, along with the danmaku within and around it, and finally, both streams turn to blocks of ice, then Letty smiles, cancels her own spell, drops down to the frozen lake, landing on Nitori's frozen streams and shattering them, then says "now that was a heartless greeting. Really, you need to put more spirit into it."

Nitori doesn't reply and simply glares as she pulls another spell card from her pocket, but when she looks at it, she gasps and whispers "no... th-that was in my other backpack... Maybe this."

She rummages through her pocket again, pulls another spell card, then sighs, whimpers, then says "I'm not at the river... Uuu, this isn't good."

Letty smiles at Nitori, then asks "what's the matter? Don't you want to play some more? Fine, I'll end it for you."

Nitori pulls another spell card from her pocket and smiles with a sigh and thinks "Kappa's Great Illusionary Waterfall. This should work!", but Letty has already picked her next spell card and loudly says "Winter Sign, Northern Winter!"

It gets so cold, so suddenly, Nitori finds herself curling up and dropping on the frozen waters, shivering violently, and all she can see before blacking out, is a large lump of cluttered snowflakes heading straight to her face.

She doesn't know how long she's been out, but Nitori slowly wakes up and realizes she's on a soft and warm bed.

She can hear Agava speaking, though her voice seems very distant, and seems aggravated as she says "really? Then that's one hell of a way to say hello?"

She can hear Rumia's voice a little closer, saying "well, you do remember you used to break bones as a greeting, right?"

There are three chuckles, though Agava's chuckle sounds nervous, then the shadow youkai nervously replies "th-that was back then! I'm a good and sexy girl now."

Finally, Rumia's voice sounds a lot clearer as she asks "is that so~?", then Nitori weakly adds "really, what noisy youkai of the dark you are."

Three voices exclaim at the same time "she's awake!", then Nitori opens her eyes, waits for her sight to adjust, then realizes she is inside the tent, and Letty is with them, looking around with great curiosity.

The little kappa frowns sadly when she sees the yuki-onna, then says "fine, I'll leave. Just stop harassing me."

Letty looks at Nitori and panics when the kappa says those words, and while nervously waving her arms in front of herself, she says "no. no, no! I was just playing around with you! Really, I was just joking! You can live around here as long as you don't cause trouble."

Nitori stares at Letty for a while, then sighs and says "you got a nasty sense of humor", to which Agava adds "Hah! I told you she'd say that, now pay up!"

Rumia protests with a groan, but pulls out a large bone with a lot of meat on it from her pocket and gives it to the shadow youkai, then Agava immediately begins to devour it with jagged teeth and a content smile.

Nitori tries to get up and sit on her bed, but she quickly realizes she is still too cold and can't move easily.

Letty notices and pulls out a gourd from her pocket, takes a cup out of nowhere, and says "here, drink this. This will warm you up right away."

She pours a sickly yellow-colored liquid into the cup, which Nitori looks at with grimace.

Letty smiles casually and says "it's sake. A very special blend. It's cold to the touch, but when you drink it, your body warms up. It's great for someone like me, you know."

Rumia stares at the gourd on Letty's left hand with suspicion, then asks "where did that come from?", while Agava, with a full mouth, manages to mumble "aww, let her help. It's the least she can do after *gulp* knocking her out like that."

Without thinking about it, Nitori lifts her head with some effort, Letty slips some sake in her mouth, and the moment the Kappa swallows it, she sticks out her tongue in disgust, but her body immediately feels warm, and she feels like she can move again.

She looks at the cup with surprise, takes it from Letty's hand, sits on her bed, then takes another sip, this time saying "bitter... but good."

Letty smiles and backs away from Nitori, then says "by the way, that spell card you were going to use... that was a bad choice. Most of the water around here is already frozen. That's why your first spell failed too."

Nitori was about to take another sip from the cup while Letty spoke, but she just stops moving at all.

Agava is already done with her large piece of meat, and after a quick burp, she joins Letty and Rumia at staring at the little kappa as she just sits her with the cup so close to her lips.

Nitori lowers the cup, looks up at girls with teary eyes, her lips expand and wriggle, then she suddenly starts to cry.

Rumia looks at Letty angrily and says "now look what you did!", and Agava adds "oh great, and she was starting to calm down too."

Nitori lowers her head in a desperate attempt to hide her face, then cries out "I wanna go home!", then continues to cry away.

The three girls in the tent can only stare while the little kappa in front of them lets out her pain through her tears.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the destroyed resort, Ail and Sanae slowly fly down through the narrow passage that used to have a working elevator leading down to the secret vault.

They land on what they believe is the broken elevator, then Ail immediately opens a gap that goes right inside of it.

They both jump inside, and immediately realize the elevator itself is in perfect condition, and just lacks power to work.

Ail forces the doors open, and immediately find out how dark is the room, so Sanae lightly pushes him away and says "I think I can do something about this."

She opens the palm of her hand, whispers in a strange dialect, then a green orb of light flies from her hand and to the roof of the room.

Though the light is a little dim, Ail and Sanae gaze upon the wide-open room with many empty columns which used to hold many great inventions and machines.

As they look around, their eyes meet the depressing-looking robot with its shut monitor standing limp next to Nitori's large green backpack.

Ail smiles and chuckles, then says "that must be it. That robot should have those memories she wants so badly. Oh, and Nitori's backpack."

Sanae giggles, then says "let's go take these to the others. I'm sure they'll get excited with this."

Ail remains silent for a moment, then suddenly says "hey, Sanae... you know, we're alone down here and..."

Sanae turns around to look at Ail's mischievous face, and without warning, she pounces on him, the green orb shuts off, then the room echoes with the sound of giggles and kisses.

Suddenly, the sounds stop, then both Ail and Sanae sight, Sanae lights another orb, revealing herself under Ail, then angrily says "Yasaka, Moriya, come on out! We KNOW you are there."

Sanae's reply is complete silence, yet she and Ail get off the ground, and Ail raises his hand, spreads his fingers open, then sends five light-blue lasers that fly straight for a second, then suddenly dive and strike hard on something.

Kanako and the hatless Suwako jump out from behind the pedestals with a loud yelp, then Kanako angrily asks "how did you know we were here?"

Sanae taps her foot, showing her displeasure, then points behind herself to the right, where Suwako's hat lies on the ground, blinking while looking around.

She turns her furious glare toward the goddesses, then says "before we totally murder you for going back on your promise and ruining our time alone..."

Ail steps forward, cracking his knuckles while smirking wickedly, then asks "how the HELL did you two get down here before us?"

Not reading the atmosphere, Kanako smiles with pride and says "once we learned of this room, it was rather easy of us to come here. We also suggested little Budou to send you down here too. Really, simple tasks for gods like us, don't you think?"

Unlike Kanako, Suwako's face is filled with terror as she shivers, whimpers and pulls on Kanako's left sleeve.

Kanako angrily asks "what's your problem now?", and Suwako, unable to form words due to her fright, points at the vicious and blood-thirsty glares on Ail and Sanae's faces.

Kanako twitches, smiles, chuckles nervously, points at Suwako, then rapidly says says "um, it was all her idea."

Above the secret room, to the left of the open elevator doors, Kyo uses his new sword to cut large metal pipes into even pieces, while Byakuren uses her magic to return the material to their original mineral state.

Both of them gasp with surprise when from the elevator, the bloody screams of two goddesses come accompanied by blasts after blasts.

Kyo sighs, then says "so they were there."

Byakuren shakes her head with pity, then says "those two will never give them their space."

From a pile of rubble to their left, Medicine pops her head out of the rocks, raises her free right arm, gasps for air, then shouts "I'M FREE~!"

* * *

Meanwhile, in the main computer room, Budou lines up various burned green boards with metallic lines and chips on them in front of Rika, then asks "can you mend these?"

Rika chuckles, then says "sure. Let me just get some things."

Rika pulls out her Saboten Stock and presses the button to take out her synthesizing hammer, along with a few minerals, then sighs and says "oh my, I'm very short on materials. I'll only be able to mend three of these."

Budou looks disappointed at the other six that will remain, then says "aww, I see. Well, it's still better than nothing, right?"

Budou looks behind Rika with curiosity, then asks "what is it miss Yumemi?"

Yumemi stands behind Rika and bends down to look at the maid's Saboten Stock with excitement in her eyes, and instead of wearing her usual red dress with the dark-red cape and white long-sleeved shirt, she's wearing a simple white t-shirt with a strawberry design on the bosom, and a pair of long blue jeans.

Rika looks up at Yumemi, and feeling a bit uncomfortable, she nervously asks "y-yes miss Yumemi?"

The human opens her mouth, then rapidly says "that thing! That thing on your hand! It's so amazing! It's adjusting the molecular structure of your things to make them shrink and fit inside an infinite space! Can I see it?"

Rika looks nervously at Yumemi, then says "um... it's... not that... I mean, it has some limitations, so..."

Yumemi continues to stare at Rika with that eager face, so Rika, feeling defeated, smiles and says "fine. Just be careful with it, please."

The second Yumemi touches the little box, she starts to shiver as she stares with excitement, then presses the left button, making Rika's wooden sword to pop right out and smack her on the face.

Rika gasps with worry, then asks "oh my, are you alright miss Yumemi?"

The excited human starts to tremble more and more violently, letting the box slip off her hand and back to Rika's, then grabs the maid by her shoulders and shakes her around while excitedly saying "this is MAGIC! You gotta let me have it! Please, please, please, PLEASE~! I need to study it!"

From behind the large monitor, Chiyuri and Rikako peek their heads, then Chiyuri angrily says "Yumemi, remember what we talked about."

Budou clears her throat, getting Yumemi's attention, then says "don't forget your promise, miss!"

Yumemi suddenly stops moving, her smile slowly turns to a frown, then she slumps and says "aww, alright. I'll get to work."

Feeling a bit bad, Rika stands up while facing Yumemi, then says "um, I have to go back home soon for a check-up, so, um... I-I'll get you one of you own, i-if that's alright."

Yumemi straightens up and turns around to stare at Rika with a wide smile, looks at Rikako, Chiyuri, then Budou, all staring at her with suspicious faces, then she bows and rapidly says "you're an angel! Thank you very much! I'd be delighted!"

Rika giggles, then says "alright. I don't know when exactly I'll be going, but as soon as I do, I'll get you your own Saboten Stock."

The door suddenly opens up, then Ail and Sanae enter with the robot and Nitori's backpack, both with very satisfied smiles on their faces, then Budou exclaims "you got it! Thank goodness. Now, let's hook it up and- Eh?"

To all their surprises, three tubes rapidly swoop down from the ceiling, and hook themselves on to the robot.

The largest monitor suddenly turns on by itself, startling Rikako and Chiyuri after it sends out a sudden spark, then it displays the image of a long and thin white rectangle, rapidly increasing gray numbers above the rectangle, and the words "Remaining Time: 3 Days" in bright white.

Budou blinks twice after reading that, then says "oh... it's going to take her three days to recover her memories."

Ail sighs and says "that's to be expected."

Sanae smiles, then says "the important thing is that she'll be back, and if you're right about it, little Budou, she's going to be able to help us rebuild this place faster."

Budou smiles, giggles, then nods and says "I sure hope so!"

* * *

TWO DAYS LATER

Rika, Reimu, Suzaku, who perches on Reimu's right shoulder, and Ail, stand outside on the Hakurei Shrine grounds during a light snowstorm.

Reimu looks with worry at Rika as she says "remember, if you are going to stay longer, you come here and tell me yourself. Don't want things to get out of hand like last time."

Rika bows and says "as you wish, my lady! Oh, but remember, we can communicate through Suzaku, so it should be ok."

Suzaku raises her wings and tweets, then suddenly pulls them back an ruffles her feathers after feeling the cold winds.

Ail sweats as he looks at Reimu with offense, then says "hey, I'm not Yukari you know. I'm much more reliable, and can deliver important messages."

Reimu smiles ominously and says "why yes, that's right! If you happen to forget to deliver the message, I can beat you up even harder!"

Ail turns around to look at Rika with a terrified smile and says "yes, you follow Reimu's instructions.", then curls up into a ball and whispers to himself "I don't want to die so young."

Meanwhile, at a large building from Earth's future, inside Rika's old room, VIVIT, the robotic maid with long red hair she ties up with a yellow ribbon at the bottom, and wears a blue maid's dress with a long white apron, hums happily while dusting the small table next to the bed, when she suddenly hears a familiar, yet strange buzzing sound of boundaries being ripped open, then looks behind herself to find Rika standing next to the rift with a smile on her face.

Unable to control her emotions, VIVIT jumps on Rika and gives her a tight hug while happily shouting "RIKA~! OH my goodness, I'm so glad to see you! Oh?"

The maid suddenly notices Ail leaning over the borders of his gap with a mischievous smile, much like Yukari's, then she points at him and asks "and who's this? Your boyfriend?"

Both Rika and Ail twitch, but before either can say a word, VIVIT grabs Ail and pulls him out of the gap, keeps holding him in the air for a moment, and gently places him on the floor while getting a good look at him.

She rubs her chin with her right hand, suddenly opens a white folding fan with a red dot on it, then says "yup, he's cute. I approve! You may marry Rika, but don't you DARE make her choose between you and her master, or I'll kill you."

With a beet-red face, Ail finally says "Rika, say something already."

Rika nervously smiles and says "um, that's not my boyfriend, miss VIVIT. That's just mister Ail, a very good friend. Miss Yukari is unavailable, so he brought me here in her stead. Besides, miss Sanae would get really mad if she heard all that just now."

VIVIT smirks, realizing Ail is easily unsettled, then says "ah, I see. He's a player."

Not knowing what she meant, Ail innocently says "well yes, I play a lot of games, though, I'm not good at getting too physical. I mostly play videogames, when I'm not flying around."

Rika giggles, then says "you still can't beat little miss Budou, or miss Reimu."

Ail nods in agreement, while VIVIT stares with great disbelief at the two, then smiles while in shock and thinks "this guy's either very dense, or very innocent. Geez, it's like a male version of Rika... except for the cute face, the cute wings... meh, I prefer Rika."

While VIVIT is busy with her thoughts, Ail says "alright Rika, whenever you're ready, just blow on the whistle and I should be here promptly."

Rika giggles and asks "but what if you are with miss Sanae, or in the bathroom?"

Ail enters his gap, looks back at Rika, then says "don't worry. If I happen to be 'busy', that whistle's spell will lag while I get ready."

Rika lightly bows and smiles as she says "alright then. See you in three days."

Ail smiles back, waves his hand, then enters the gap.

Seconds later, Ail finds himself back at the Hakurei Shrine's courtyard, and immediately notices the hustle inside, where Tenshi, Hatate, Suzaku, Koakuma, and Reimu, seem to be going over some papers and drawings.

He enters through the left side as quietly as he can, takes a deep breath, and just as he is about to ask what is going on, a pair of shoes land right on his back, kicking the life out of him as he becomes a rug on the floor.

Youmu stands on Ail, glaring at the girls while pointing at them and saying "I heard what you are plotting from the tengu! You've got some guts doing something like this without me!"

Reimu taps the floor next to herself with her hand, and calmly says "sorry, I didn't think you'd be interested. Come, there's enough room here."

Youmu's face completely changes, and smiles like an eager child as she hops off Ail and heads toward Reimu.

Ail's body cracks as he struggles to push himself off the ground, and just as he manages to push his upper torso off the ground, Shinki flies from outside and lands on his back, making him groan as she pushes his face down with her foot.

With righteous fury in her eyes, she looks at the girls around the table and says "wrong, wrong, wrong! If you THINK you're doing something special for Rika without me, you are VERY wrong!"

The girls stare curiously at Shinki, then Reimu smiles and says "oh, you healed your leg. Well, come on, we're just deciding on a pattern!"

Shinki squeals with glee as she jumps off Ail and heads toward the table, then Reimu notices Ail on the floor and angrily says "sorry Ail, this is girls-only. Please get out now, or I'm kicking you out."

Ail's body clatters as he struggles to get back up, smiles, manages to seemingly nod, then opens a gap underneath himself, eager to escape any other possible back attacks.

* * *

TWO MORE DAYS LATER

Ail is flying over the Myouren Temple as he heads to the Youkai Forest, thinking to himself "boy, that Julia can be a real slave driver! Geez, my back's still sore, and we still haven't gotten the beach ready. Ah well, it's for a good cause."

Meanwhile, at the Youkai Forest, Nitori hides behind anything she can find, trees, rocks, or mounds of snow, while stealthily heading towards the river, unable to resist the call back home.

She quietly sneaks behind a large tree and looks around suspiciously as she desperately thinks "I'm almost there. Just a bit more, I'll swim for a bit, then I'll leave before anyone notices me."

After making sure nobody is around, she makes a run-for-it and hides behind a large rock that sits only eight feet away from the river.

She smiles as she whispers to herself "good, good. J-just a bit more... just a little bit farther..."

She looks around again, readies herself to run again, then stops when she hears the familiar happy humming from Hina, panics, then runs away from the river.

Hina stares at the rock Nitori was hiding behind for a moment, then shrugs and continues to hum while raising her right hand to the air to absorb some lingering curses.

Nitori hyperventilates as she runs back where she came from, thinking "what was I thinking? They don't want me here! I better get out of here before-"

Nitori stops at a clearing, where two small youkai, one a horned blonde girl with short hair that wears what looks like a bed-sheet with red ribbons attached to the left of the torso, and the other looks like a normal human boy, except for his purple cat-like eyes, who wears a plain white shirt with long brown pants, both wearing furry brown shoes.

The boy points at Nitori, then says "hey, it's the girl! The girl that brought that monster human here!"

Before long, Nitori finds herself surrounded by ice spirits that just float around and stare at her, but to Nitori, they look vicious and ready to attack out of rage.

She winces as she tries to find her optical camouflage, then gasps and thinks "oh no, that was in my backpack."

The blonde youkai looks curiously at the kappa and says "hey, the other kappa are looking for you."

Terror fills Nitori's heart as she thinks "th-this is it. They're going to kill me. I-I need to escape... but I'm surrounded. What should I do?"

From the sky, Ail loudly asks "Nitori, is that you?"

He descends until he's floating just above the trees to get a better look, then smiles and says "it is you! Nitori, we've been so worried! Come with me, I have something to show you!"

Nitori shouts "s-stay back! You just want to take me to them!"

After hearing her say that, Ail decides to stay above the trees as he stares at the little kappa with curiosity, then says "but Nitori, we all miss you. We're-"

Before he can finish, purple bolts of lightning start spreading behind Ail, and suddenly, a swirling purple rift opens up behind him, sucking him up by force after scaring the spirits and the two youkai away.

Ail shouts "Nitori, I need to go for a moment! Please, go to the river and-"

Nitori looks of at the swirling vortex with a terrorized face, then thinks "th... that sukima!"

The vortex sucks Ail up before he can finish speaking, leaving the little kappa with that horrified face.

The rift reminds her of the day she met Guzman, how she saved him from drowning, how he saved her from Hina, then her mind quickly plays out everything that happened while he was there.

She curls up while sitting on the ground, holds her head with both hands, her eyes seem to want to explode as she clenches her teeth, then very suddenly she starts to cry, then runs away back to the lake as fast as she can.

* * *

Meanwhile, on Earth's future, inside Rika's room, Ail finds himself in the middle of a fight between two girls, VIVIT and a blond girl with long hair and silver-blue eyes, wearing a white long sleeveless dress and a lilac sash around her arms.

VIVIT angrily shouts "she's NOT like that, so back off before I beat you up Marie!"

The blonde girl called Marie smiles mischievously, then asks "how do you know? Did you already try without me? Now I'm mad."

Ail notices Rika on her bed with a very embarrassed look on her face, approaches her with a curious look on his own face, then asks "what's going on here? Rika, what happened? Why did you summon me so soon?"

Rika's face turns even redder when she realizes Ail is in the room, then tries to act calm as she says "erm, nothing. Um, I'm, um, done here, so..."

Marie notices Ail behind VIVIT, then says "oh, I see. She's into men after all."

Rika blushes, black questions marks appear around Ail's head, then VIVIT gets enraged and shouts "waah~! I'm gonna smack you!"

Before Marie can react, VIVIT grabs her by her ears, winds up her entire body, then gives her a powerful headbutt that makes the entire floor vibrate.

Marie mumbles incoherently as she stumbles around, then finally falls on the ground, twitching her legs and right arm.

Ail scratches his head while even more question marks pop over his head, then says "okay~, that was interesting."

VIVIT lets out a satisfying sigh while dusting her hands, then looks at Rika, smiles, and asks "are you alright sweetie?"

Rika nods, then says "I'm ok. I wasn't expecting that, though."

VIVIT growls, then Ail finally snaps out of his confusion and excitedly says "Rika, I found Nitori!"

Rika snaps out of her embarrassment, jumps off her bed, then claps her hands together as she asks "really? She's alright? Did you take her to see Julia?"

Ail frowns and says "no, I couldn't get to her. She's too frightened and I didn't want to scare her away."

Rika slumps and says "aww, that's a shame."

VIVIT wants to ask what are they talking about, but before she does, Rika rushes to her, gives her a hug, then says "I'm sorry, but it seems I was right. They need me back home!"

VIVIT smiles as she pats Rika's head, smiles, though looks a bit sad, then says "it's alright sweetie. J-just remember... You promised."

Rika smiles almost angelically, nods, then walks toward Ail and the gap next to her bed, and in just a second, she and Ail are gone.

Marie moans as she slowly gets up, then asks "what the hell happened? Uhh, why does my head hurt so much?"

VIVIT looks at Marie with an ominous smile, then says "oh, it's nothing. You were just leaving to go and see a doctor about that headache."

Meanwhile, inside the tent next to the Misty Lake, Nitori sits on her bed and wraps herself up with the sheets while she cries away.

She wants to talk to someone, tell them what she saw, what she is seeing now, inside her mind, but Agava, Rumia, nor Letty are there, so all she can do is sob, while her mind repeats the memory of the day she met with Guzman over and over again.

* * *

To Be Continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Seihou Characters are property of Amusement Makers, a.k.a. Syunsatsu Sare Do

Ail, Budou, Kyo, Luna, the RKNS (Rabid Karate Night Sparrow), Spee, Girlie, Agava, S-Kyo, Kimi and Kali were created by Willie G.R.

Rika Onkamikami and Suzaku were created by Snapshot 2010

NOV 16 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Well, this is almost done. Really, this was supposed to be the final chapter, but... I realized there were a few loose ends here and there, then I thought it would seem way too rushed if I just suddenly make it all better, so yeah, I opted for one more chapter. For those of you who know my work, that means TWO more, counting the extra chapter... but that's for later. Now, I must say I felt very good writing this chapter, being able to bring hilarity back, though not at full force yet. Need to take the necessary steps. Ah well anyway, thanks for reading all the way down here. Take care, and beware those washtubs, they are lurking about.**


	20. Chapter 20

It's late morning, and at the Hakurei Shine, Reimu sits comfortably under her kotatsu, enjoying some green tea, while Suzaku sleeps, perching comfortably on a special perch made just for her, which hangs just above the entrance to the rooms corridor.

After drinking a bit of tea, Reimu sighs as she looks up at the ceiling, then says to herself "well, she should be back by tomorrow, so it should be alright. Still, the mornings are a bit quiet without her around."

There is a buzzing sound behind the maiden, and just as she turns around, Ail and Rika hop right out of the gap, smiling at Reimu and waving their right hands at her.

Reimu gasp excitedly, then suddenly frowns and asks "you're staying longer, aren't you?"

Rika chuckles and says "no, no, I was done sooner. And from what they told me, I don't need to go back for those check-ups anymore... but, with your permission, I'd like to visit them once in a while."

Reimu stares curiously at her maid for a moment, smiles, nods in acknowledgement, then suddenly says "welcome back home Rika!"

Hatate jumps from the unlit and dirty oven and exclaims "RIKA-SIS IS, LIKE, BACK!"

The front doors suddenly open up with Tenshi standing just outside, exclaiming "Rika's back~!"

Koakuma jumps out of Reimu's room and exclaims "yay, Rika onee-chan~!"

Shinki is already hugging the confused Rika, saying "welcome home sweetie!"

Reimu angrily shouts "where the HECK did you all come from?"

While the girls bicker and argue amongst themselves, Ail walks away from the pack, looks curiously around, then kneels down to look under the small rug at the left-side entrance.

Youmu jumps out from under the rug, exclaiming "don't *cough* hide under the rug!", then rushes to the cluttered group of girls.

Ail stands up, Suzaku lands on his shoulder, shares a curious stare, then telepathically asks "you wouldn't be hiding someone in your pants, would you?"

Ail silently shakes his head, then he and Suzaku yelp in surprise when Yumemi jumps from the roof, wearing her regular attire and exclaiming "alright she's here! Did you bring it? Did you get me one of those Sabo... thing Stocks?"

Before Ail and Suzaku can recover from their surprise, they are surprised once more, when from the left, Marisa stares casually at the group of girls around Rika and says "now that's something you don't see often, ze."

Again, Ail and Suzaku are surprised, when from their right, Remilia, who stares casually at Reimu, says "even Reimu's in there. Huh, I never thought I'd see the day."

Ail and Suzaku finally recover, Ail takes a deep breath, then Suzaku angrily says "that's it, I'm going in there."

She flies away from Ail and goes straight toward Rika, saying "if I stay there any longer, I'm going to get a heart attack."

Ail stands between the two girls for a moment, then starts to sweat with fear when he realizes Remilia is staring at him through the corner of her eyes.

He takes one step back, then he and Remilia become two beams of light in the sky, Remilia chasing after Ail, shouting "come on, just a sip! I promise I'll make it quick this time!"

Ail shouts back "you're going to turn me into a vampire!"

Remilia shouts back "it doesn't work that way!"

Marisa lifts her hands to neck height, closes her eyes, sighs, then says "whatever, I'll join these girls. It's much warmer in here anyway."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the underground construction site, Julia's upper half walks around the dried beach, adjusting her glasses while staring in an unfriendly manner all around.

Her hologram, though incomplete, still works to her advantage, and is able to assist the reconstruction as she is.

She notices Kyo, Luna, Medicine and Su-San staring at a grilled pipe on the sand at the right-most farthest edge of the beach, and all are staring down into it with curious faces.

Although she's missing the lower half of herself, Julia hovers toward them, though seems to be trying to walk as she does.

She joins them and stares into the pipe, then surprises them all when she calmly asks "is there something in the pipe?"

After taking a few breaths and holding on to her chest, Luna exclaims "don't do that!", then sighs and says "anyway, the pipe looks clear, but the water isn't flowing yet."

Julia smiles and chuckles, then says "you should have told me. Here, I can make the pumps draw in some extra amount of water, and the pressure will cause anything that's clogging the pipes to burst right out."

Kyo, Medicine, Su-San and Luna exchange worried stares, then Kyo says "alright, let us get out of your way so you can-", but before he is done speaking, the pipe begins to rumble.

Medicine shouts "wait! Wait for us to get away!", while Su-San shakes her arms around in despair, then Kyo shouts "no time!", and grabs Medicine, while Luna grabs Su-San and shouts "fly away~!"

Long before they can fly away, something red, white, yellow and purple springs right out of the pipe, along with a powerful water stream, knocking out the protective grill, and filling the entire beach in just seconds.

Kyo, Luna, Medicine and Su-San all drift to shore, floating on their backs while moaning with spinning eyes.

Meanwhile, in front of the former apartments, Budou seems to be looking around with curiosity, as though looking for something, then yelps with fright and flies toward the remains of the left buildings when the colorful clog from the beach lands right in front of her.

When she peeks her purple eyes through the rubble, she gasps with excitement, then flies back down, exclaiming "gramma, big sis! There you are, finally! I've been looking all over for you!"

Kanako and Suwako lie next to each other on their backs, looking extremely dirty, with green slime over their faces, arms and hair and black spots all over their clothes.

Budou approaches the moaning goddesses, then grabs her nose and exclaims "eww~, gross~! Where have you two been? Inside a potty?"

Suwako shivers, then says "th-they really flushed us."

Kanako moans, then says "who... who knew pipes were so... so narrow."

Budou stares curiously at the goddesses for a moment, then shrugs and giggles, then says "whatever. You're here now, so you can actually start helping. Who knows, you might even get a few believers if you do it right."

Kanako suddenly springs to her feet, looking radiant and clean and expelling a scent of perfume, then raises her fist in the air and exclaims "ALRIGHT! I'll do it! Come on Moriya, get up! We have FAITH to gather!"

Ignoring the smell and the slime on Suwako, Kanako grabs her friend, then rushes toward the eastern side of the resort, where a new area is being built from scratch with the help of both kappa and robots.

On the way, Suwako lazily says "but I don't wanna~!"

Budou giggles, then says "I guess mama and papa let them have it hard enough, so I'll spare them this time."

* * *

Later that day, Ail enters his house with a look of despair on his face, locks the door with haste, then hides under the sofa, shivering violently.

From the sky outside, Remilia shouts "I know you're somewhere around here! You can't hide forever Ail!"

Ail opens a gap, sinks his hand inside, then he can hear how Remilia exclaims with excitement and flies away towards Alice's house, shouting "I can smell you!"

Ail sighs with great relief, yet looking a little miserable as he gets out from under the sofa, he says to himself "so pushy. Really, why the hell does she want my blood so badly."

An image of a boastful smiling mini-Remilia appears in a bubble to his left, saying "because your blood is so sweet and tasty and nutritious and..."

By now, the mini-Remilia is drooling and smacking her lips as she continues "...and so nourishing, and thick and the scent drives me nuts!"

The mini-Remilia tries to jump out of the circle and grab Ail, shouting "gimmie, gimmie, gimmie~!", but Ail kicks the circle away, looking annoyed while saying to himself "yeah, now I remember."

Ail narrows his eyes and looks around himself, thinking "it's too quiet all of a sudden.", but before he can react, he feels himself suffocating and is desperately gasping for air, trying to grab his neck, but is unable to reach it.

Ail manages to keep calm, but knows there isn't much time for him if it keeps up, but then his neck feels light again and he desperately gasps for air as he falls on his knees on the floor, then notices a pair of brown boots with light-brown fluffs in front of him.

When he looks up at Agava, he coughs and angrily says "dammit Agava, I'm getting Rumia to set you straight!"

From the kitchen, Rumia asks "is that so, you mean bully~?"

Agava grabs Ail by the neck of his shirt, glares straight into his annoyed eyes, then says "you bastard, you attacked Nitori and ruined our hard work! She was about to go back to her home and everything!"

Rumia angrily adds "she had even stopped glaring, you jerk!"

Ail stands up with Agava holding on to him, holding his arms besides himself while saying "whoa, whoa, whoa, what the HELL are you two talking about? I just saw her and tried to talk to her, but then I got summoned! That's all!"

Agava lets go of Ail, pulls out a piece of paper from her pocket, then hands it to him, saying "then explain the reason for this!"

Ail opens the small piece of paper and discovers it's a small letter, saying _"I met with Ail and realized how much I really messed up. Please don't look for me anymore, act as if I don't even exist! __Your friend__ Nitori"_

The words "Your friend" have been struck out, leaving only Nitori's name beside the mess._  
_

Ail frowns as he folds the letter and says "but I swear, I didn't even get the chance to speak to her!"

Both Agava and Rumia can notice how Ail's face turns pale and sadness take over him as he sits on his couch.

Agava gets closer and says "w-well, you must have done something!"

Rumia flies from the kitchen and hovers in front of Ail, saying "are you sure? Look, even the yuki-onna from the lake helped, and she's very mad at you, so say you did something. That way, we won't feel bad for getting angry at you or attacking you."

Ail sighs, and while he thinks back on a few hours before, he says "the last thing I wanted was to scare her away. I even stopped when she asked me to... wait..."

Ail rubs his chin, then suddenly face palms hard, groans angrily, then says "the summon! The gap that opens up when I'm summoned! It's the same one **HE** used to get here, I'm sure of it!"

Agava and Rumia look curiously at Ail, then he looks back at them with evident frustration on his face while saying "dammit, and we were working so hard too! Great, now I'm getting mad at myself!"

Agava jumps to the left of Ail on the couch, then asks "what are you talking about?"

Ail looks at the shadow youkai and with a sad tone of voice, he says "Budou, the girls form the temple, those crazy scientists, the kappa, a lot of us are working hard to rebuild her resort, you know, to cheer her up... and all I wanted was to take her there, to let her see that nobody blames her, that we all want her back."

Agava looks away from Ail with shame on her face, bearing her teeth as she says "whoops... Erm, sorry for attacking you there."

From the bathroom, a woman loudly asks "then wouldn't it be a good idea to go look for her?"

Water can be heard dripping from the bathroom, then Ail asks "Letty, are you taking a bath in there?"

Letty happily replies "the water is so warm, and yet so cool. I couldn't resist."

Ail sighs, ignoring the yuki-onna in his bathroom, then says "look, if we go looking for her now, she's just going to run away."

Everybody in the room frowns, while Letty loudly moans sadly from the bathroom, then Ail says "we'll just finish rebuilding the resort, so why don't you guys find out where she's hiding, but don't try to approach her. Just keep an eye on her so that when she comes out, you can take her to the resort, or tell me when she does."

Agava eagerly jumps off the couch and Rumia lands right next to her, both salute at Ail, then Agava says "alright, we'll do that, you finish fixing that, then, when she comes out, we'll find a way to get her there."

Ail chuckles, then says "alright then. Thank you for your help... and next time you try to strangle me, I'm taking you to the boundary of darkness."

Agava blushes and says "deal... umm, by the way, the vampire knows you tricked her."

Ail twitches and looks at Agava with fright, then asks "wh-how do you know?"

As Agava and Rumia get covered in darkness, the shadow youkai mysteriously says "the shadows know much, my dear~!"

With that, the two girls disappear, leaving the yuki-onna in Ail's bathroom, but before Ail has a chance to prepare for Remilia, the vampire swoops down from the ceiling and strikes the back of his head with all her might, knocking him out.

She sneers and says "alright, I'll take you to the doctor now. You be good boy and pump much of that blood into the bags, ok."

Letty walks out of Ail's bathroom, glistening with renewed vigor and saying "ah, I feel so refreshed."

She stares at Remilia and the unconscious Ail, walks past them to the door, and just before leaving, she happily says "you two have fun now. Don't worry, I won't tell. Bye~!"

She shuts the door, flies away, then Remilia casually shrugs, grabs Ail by his arms, then smiles and happily says "I finally get to restock!"

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Tengu Village, Hatate and Rika walk toward the same large building where Ail had the hearing, with Momiji trailing behind them, constantly flipping her ears and rapidly wagging her tail.

Hatate looks at Rika to her right, then worriedly asks "are you sure you don't want me to guide you? Ail had a lot of trouble just taking one step without my help."

Rika walks quite casually beside Hatate, even though she's blindfolded, and with a smile on her face, she giggles and says "it's alright, I can manage. Still, I think I should help mister Ail out with this. Being blindfolded is a great way to sharpen one's senses."

Hatate nods in agreement, then stops and says "alright, we're here. Just remember, don't speak unless spoken to, and... well, actually, I have no idea why Lord Tenma summoned you, so..."

Rika chuckles, then says "it's alright, I'll be just fine."

Hatate gulps, the doors open, then both girls head inside.

At the black and red checkered floored room, Tenma waits silently on his chair, while Rika and Hatate stand in the center of the room, Rika staring straight at him, making him question her blindfold.

Other than Lord Tenma and one female elder, the room is otherwise empty, unlike the time Ail visited, save for Momiji, who remains by the door while looking at Rika with longing.

Tenma stands up, and immediately, Rika, Hatate, and even Momiji bow down and wait for him to sit.

The moment he does, the first thing he says is "I see this maid has her senses sharpened. No doubt you've been through many trials. Hatate, please remove her blindfold. I wish to have a better look at her."

Hatate looks curiously at the tengu lord, but follows the order without question, and while she's untying the black cloth, Tenma leans back, chuckling and whispering at the elder tengu "she's certainly different than Ail, isn't she?"

While the two tengu chuckle away, Rika frowns and thinks "oh dear, mister Ail left his impression after all."

Once Hatate removes the cloth from her eyes, Rika looks up at the tengu lord and sees the large human-like figure with a long beard staring back at her, paying close attention to her eyes and wings.

He rubs the chin under his beard, keeping awkwardly silent while staring at the shrine's maid, then finally hums and says "those wings, those eyes... Miss, Hatate says your eyes look like the daylight sky."

With a respectful smile, Rika nods and says "with your permission, I'd like to show you."

Tenma calmly signals to do so, saying "please do, as I am infinitely curious about this."

Rika smiles more naturally, nods, closes her eyes to concentrate, then her wings grow larger, her sword turns colorful, and when she opens her eyes, the tengu lord stares at the clouds slowly drifting in them, though his emotions can't be read due to him being hidden in shadow.

Tenma suddenly gasps, then asks "miss, tell me something. You wouldn't happen to be an Onkamikami, the clan of gods that serve the gods?"

Rika looks surprised at the tengu lord for a moment, then bows, smiles, and says "yes, Lord Tenma. My full name is Rika Onkamikami, of the Onkamikami clan. Now, I do not wish to be disrespectful, but may I ask why was I summoned before you?"

Tenma calmly leans back on his chair and says "hmm, I haven't seen an Onkamikami for a long time. Very well. Miss Rika, I summoned you here because Hatate here would only speak about you over and over. I was merely curious."

Rika giggles, then says "I see.", then looks at Hatate, smiles, and says "she's been helping me out a lot lately, I hope this hasn't been an inconvenience."

Before Tenma can speak, Hatate gasps and says "never an inconvenience for Rika-sis!"

Tenma strikes the armrest on his chair, and with a loud and thunderous voice, he angrily says "Hatate Himekaidou, how dare you? You will address to miss Onkamikami with the respect she deserves!"

Hatate panics and stutters incoherently and nervously, then Rika places a gentle hand on Hatate's shoulder, calming her down, then calmly says "it's alright my lord. I don't mind her calling me that. Really, I like it when she calls me her sister."

Tenma hums for a moment, then says "such a kind soul, a credit to your family name. Fine, I'll forgive her this time, but wish to remind her to remember who you are, and where she stands."

Hatate nods nervously, looks back to the door, then blushes beet red as though in great shame.

Tenma chuckles and says "alright. Rika Onkamikami, of the Onkamikami clan, you are welcome into the Tengu Village from now on. I see no problem in an Onkamikami visiting our mountains. Oh, and I recommend you return to normal. Seems that like mister Ail, your appearance could cause some... trouble."

Rika looks behind herself and sees many male crow and wolf tengu staring at her with glistening eyes and wide smiles, some drooling and some carrying flowers for her.

The maid blushes and quickly returns to normal, saying "oh my, I see what you mean."

She grabs her own blushing face with both hands, slightly tilts her hip to the left, quickly flaps her tiny wings, then says "oh my, how embarrassing. Don't worry Lord Tenma. I'll keep myself in check at all times."

When Rika looks around, she notices all the tengu have blood under their noses, and even Lord Tenma's face looks a little red, even through the shadow covers him up.

Rika gasps and worriedly asks "oh dear, what's wrong? What happened? Are you all alright?"

Hatate chuckles, looks at Tenma, waits for him to nod, then says "it's nothing Rika-sis. Nothing at all. In fact, you could say it was a blessing."

Rika looks around with worry for a little longer, sighs to calm herself down, then says "thank goodness. You know, that seems to happen around me often."

Tenma leans back and whispers "well, at least she's not as dense as that Ail, but she certainly is innocent, I'll give her that."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the frozen Misty Lake, Agava, Rumia, Letty and Cirno search around for Nitori in groups of two.

Letty and Cirno search the shores around the Scarlet Devil Island, though all they seem to be doing is just casually walking around.

Cirno looks up at Letty to her left, then starts flying in circles around her while asking "so what are we looking for Letty? Is it something tasty, huh, huh?"

Smiling ominously, Letty grabs Cirno by her shoulders and says "we are looking for a girl. Actually, a kappa. She went into hiding and we are helping find her."

The yuki-onna places Cirno on the frozen water and continues walking, then Cirno stands on the ice for a while, thinking for a moment, then says "well, we aren't really looking, are we? We should go and shout '_Hey miss kappa~! Where are you!_', and shout stuff like that, so she can respond and we can find her."

Letty sighs, then says "I already explained that she is hiding **from** us. If we shout around like that, she'll just run away."

Again, Cirno starts thinking, closing her eyes and rubbing her chin, then suddenly gasps and exclaims "like hide-and-seek! I'm an expert at hide-and-seek! Hey..."

The little ice fairy suddenly takes flight while rubbing her chin again, then shouts "wait a moment! Hide-and-seek? Those fairies! I have to declare war on them! They trashed my house, and now they have to PAY!"

Cirno flies away, waving her arms around while excitedly shouting "just you wait! I'll find those three, and when I do, I'm going to freeze them all!"

Letty looks up toward Cirno, sighs while face palming, then asks to herself "how can an ice fairy be so energetic?"

Meanwhile, at the other side of shore, Rumia and Agava perform a more thorough search, looking for any sign of Nitori's whereabouts.

While Agava searches over the frozen lake, Rumia searches around their tent, though bumping on to trees whenever she surrounds herself in darkness.

Finally, Agava finds an uneven bump on the ice, then looks at the darkness-covered Rumia, waits for her to bump on a tree, and the second she crashes again, she signal darkness youkai to get closer.

Rumia turns her head to Agava just as the shadow youkai signals for her, then nods and quickly gets back up and slowly flies toward Agava.

The shadow youkai now tries to push the snow away from the ice to take a look underwater, then Rumia spots a light in a small cave that lies underneath the outer shore.

Agava smiles and whispers "there she is."

Rumia smiles, extends her arms, then asks "is that so~?"

Agava grunts, grabs Rumia by her left arm, and as she drags her along, she flies to the east, saying "enough with that joke! We got to tell him!"

* * *

Early evening at the Hakurei Shrine entrance.

Eirin, with Reisen and Tewi beside her, fly toward the shrine's left-side entrance's porch, where Reisen quickly knocks on the wooden frame as soon as they land.

From inside, Reimu exclaims "yes, just a moment. Rika, could you check who it is?"

Rika replies "certainly, my lady.", then they can hear her footsteps as she gets closer.

Rika opens the door with a bright and friendly smile, saying "welcome to the Hakurei Shrine.", then looks at the guests, gasps in shock, then exclaims "miss Eirin, miss Reisen, miss Tewi, what happened?"

Reisen and Tewi are actually supports for the ever-smiling Eirin, who has her right foot wrapped up to her knee.

Reimu stares at them, showing no interest whatsoever, and asks "what do you want? I'm not a doctor you know."

The Lunarians and youkai rabbit make their way inside, the rabbits help Eirin sit on the floor, then, with a sweet, yet strangely painful smile on her face, Eirin starts unwrapping her bandages.

After a few seconds, everyone in the room raises an eyebrow when they start hearing high-pitched snarls and growls from the wraps, and when Eirin is finally done, Reimu, Rika, Suzaku, and Mima express their shock.

Tenshi pops her head from under the kotatsu and exclaims "how horrible!"

Aya flies straight inside the shrine, chuckles as she takes a few pictures, then says "this will make a great story!"

Finally, Reimu stands up, gets closer, then, with a worried expression on her face, she asks "E-Eirin... Wh-what have you done?"

Biting hard on Eirin's toe while clinging on to her foot, growling and snarling, little dog-Ail looks at Reimu through the corner of his blood-shot eyes, growls and sinks his teeth in deeper, then Reisen bows and says "please help."

Rika chuckles nervously, gets closer to dog-Ail, then asks "so, he became a little half-dog again?"

Reimu sighs, and face palms as she asks what did you do to him this time?"

Reisen bows to the ground until her forehead touches the tatami floor, then says "please, help master! We'll explain everything!"

Reimu smirks mischievously, an ominous shadow casts itself over her eyes, then she says "Ail-kun~, if you don't let go now, I'm telling Sanae you went after another girl that's not her~!"

Dog-Ail's expression completely changes to terror after he yelps loudly, then he releases Eirin and immediately jumps on Rika's arms, trembling and whining while wrapping his fluffy tail between his legs.

Eirin sighs with great relief, smiles more naturally, then says "thank the gods, what a relief~!"

Reimu impatiently taps her foot on the floor while placing her fists on her waist, stares at Eirin, then points at Ail and angrily asks "what did you do to him now?"

Dog-Ail starts to bark furiously, but doesn't speak, aggravating Reimu, who shouts "quiet you mutt!"

Again, dog-Ail yelps and starts to whimper as he sinks his wide, black and sparkly doggy eyes, and tiny pink wet nose in Rika's belly.

The maid giggles nervously and says "oh my, what's wrong with him."

Tewi snickers and says "oh, just wait until you hear this, usa!"

Eirin sighs, then says "the vampire brought him unconscious to me so she could extract some of his blood again, so I used the new-NEW blood-extracting chair on him. However..."

Reisen bows again, and almost crying, she says "I forgot to untie him!"

Eirin places her fingers on her forehead as she sighs in disappointment and says "he tried transforming into the miniature dog again to escape, but the new chair's belts adjust to the person or thing being strapped in."

Tewi chuckles, then says "by the time these two remembered him, he had regressed to the point of only being able to bark. Now he's just a fwuffy doggie!"

Dog-Ail turns away from Rika, growling furiously at Tewi, and while Rika grabs a hold of him, he barks and snarls and tries to jump on the youkai rabbit, but Rika holds him tight, patting his head and saying "it's alright, it's ok. Miss Reimu will get them for you."

Just as Tewi was about to taunt Ail some more, Sanae and Budou fly from the sky outside, land right on the back of the youkai rabbit, then both exclaim at the same time "WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM~!"

Phredia jumps right out of Budou's heart, glowing red, as Budou furiously asks "what the hell happened to my papa now~? Why is he a tiny doggie again?"

Sanae rushes to Rika, grabs hold of dog-Ail, squeezes him between her chest, and asks "Ail-kun, Ail-kun, what happened? Who did this to you!"

Dog-Ail smiles and blushes while Sanae keeps smothering him, moaning contently, though sounding like he's whimpering.

* * *

After settling down, Budou, Phredia, Reimu and Sanae, who holds dog-Ail in her arms, sit on their knees on comfortable cushions in front of Eirin, Reisen, and Tewi, who has a vile smirk on her face, and a large bandaged bump on her head.

Eirin frowns as she bows down, then says "truly, I am terribly sorry about all of this. I gave him the necessary nutrients, but he was just too drained."

Dog-Ail stretches his neck while Sanae scratches his head and asks "so, how long before he can return to normal?"

Eirin smiles, though seemingly saddened as she says "a month, maybe two."

Sanae furiously spring up on her feet, sending dog-Ail flying straight to Shinki's hands, who sits with her legs under the kotatsu to Marisa's left.

Dog-Ail shivers as he looks up at Shinki with glassy eyes, then the goddess of Makai can't help but smile and give him a light hug while saying "aww, the poor thing is scared."

Meanwhile, Sanae points her gohei straight at Eirin's face with a scowl, white eyes, jagged teeth, and raging fire rising behind her as she exclaims "you better fix Ail-kun or I'm hunting aliens for a month!"

Eirin stands up with a confident and threatening smile, then says "I'd like to see you try! I'll chew you up and spit you out long before you even realize what is what!"

Reisen stands up and nervously says "p-please calm down. W-we don't want any trouble."

Tewi pulls on a string and unzips the side or Reisen's skirt, making it fall and show everyone her small bloomers.

While Reisen yelps and bends down to pick her skirt up, she shouts "what are you doing to me?"

Ail suddenly start to growl, then starts barking rapidly, jumps away from Shinki, and runs after Eirin, bearing his teeth as he prepare to bite her again.

Eirin gasps and flies away, knocking the left entrance door down to the snow, unknowingly flattening Agava, who was just about to knock on the wooden frame.

As she flies away back home, Sanae chases after her, shouting "come back here! Come back here and fix Ail-kun this instant!"

Reisen zips her skirt, runs outside while shouting "Master, wait for me! Wait!", and just before her foot touches the knocked door on the snow, it slides on its own and sends Reisen falling into a seemingly deep gate to the shadow realm.

Tewi stands up, stretching and saying "well, time to go back home."

Before she can leave, she's surprised by a light slapping sound, and the feeling of some paper on her wrist.

When she looks to her left arm, she notices Reimu is smiling at her almost angelically while pointing at her knocked door, then realizes the maiden placed a restraining charm on her wrist.

With that angelical smile and an equally and disturbing angelical tone of voice, Reimu says "since your master and boss are gone, it looks like **you** are fixing the door they just knocked down."

Tewi's eyes hide under a navy-blue shadow as she nervously smiles back, sweats, and says "s-sure thing. Wou-wouldn't dream of leaving before fixing your door."

Reimu smiles more naturally, and Rika stands up and walks with Tewi toward the broken door, saying "let me help you.", and Budou now holds on to dog-Ail, who has fallen asleep while curled up on her lap, while Phredia pats his head and smiles with glee.

From the kotatsu, completely unharmed and looking as though nothing is happening, Agava says "man, this shrine is so noisy!"

Rumia pops her head to Tenshi's right from underneath the kotatsu, then nods and says "yup. Noisiest shrine ever!"

Reimu dusts her skirt after getting up, turns around to face Agava and Rumia, then happily says "you are more than welcome to leave."

Agava sighs, then says "it's alright. If it's a bit noisy, then it's good."

* * *

Again, after things settle down, and the door is back in its place, Reimu, Marisa, Budou and Shinki sit around the kotatsu, while Agava and Rumia stare at dog-Ail on Mima's hands with curiosity.

Mima holds on to Ail, letting him sleep away, curled up on her lap, while Suzaku gently pecks his ear, making it flip, and Phredia scratches the back of that same ear to keep him calm and sleeping.

Reimu chuckles to get the two youkai's attention and says "never mind him. He'll be alright. Now, what's so important that you have to come here at this hour?"

Agava and Rumia rub their chins while they think hard, then Agava gasps and says "we found the kappa!"

Before Reimu asks, dog-Ail wakes up, runs to the table, then pants as he jumps around on all four legs while barking happily.

From the kitchen, Rika says "well, that cheered mister Ail up."

Rumia gets closer to Ail, pokes his tiny head, then drools as she asks "can I eat him?"

Ail starts to growl, and in an instant, he jumps up and takes a bite out of Rumia's right arm, making her run around while screaming "no, no, no, no~! I'm supposed to be the one eating you!"

While this happens, Agava completely ignores them and looks at Rika as she says "well, the thing is we found her, but now we need to know whether we should go and get her, or just watch over her."

Dog Ail stands on the table again, mumbling something at Budou, who looks at Agava and says "papa says to watch over her. He says _'if you go after her, she'll run away'_, and that it would be bad."

Budou nods at Ail, then says "yes, I agree. After all, we've been working so hard to restore her resort."

Everyone in the shrine stares at Budou, then Reimu smiles and says "that's right, this young child can understand her papa, no matter what."

Budou giggles, then says "that's right. And he's asking how can you be comfortable in this weather with your armpits exposed like that."

The word "MURDER" writes itself behind Reimu in raging hot fire as the maiden smiles at the whimpering dog-Ail, then asks "hey Rumia, do you like you meat rare, or can I cook it a bit before you eat it?"

Rumia starts drooling again and says "I don't mind as long as it's MEAT!"

Budou gasps, then shrieks so loud, she paralyzes all but Suzaku, Phredia and Mima behind her, and Rika over at the kitchen, grabs the paralyzed dog-Ail, then cries as she flies away "mama! Mama~! Hakurei sis wants to cook doggie papa~!", all while Phredia flies after her with a desperate look on her face.

From the kitchen, Rika sighs and says "my lady, look what you made that poor thing do."

Reimu manages to giggle a bit as she slowly recovers from the paralysis, then says "w-w-w-was j-ju-just t-t-t-teasing!"

Rika sighs, walks to her mistress and the paralyzed guests, and softly says "hold on, I'm giving you a hand there."

* * *

Meanwhile, inside the tiny cave under the lake, Nitori lies on her side, on a flat and cold patch of dirt next to the water, while looking toward a small flashlight she had inside one of her pockets and is using as her only source of light.

She has finally stopped crying, but she still looks awfully tired and depressed.

She stares unblinking at the soft light the flashlight emanates and thinks "this is it, Nitori. This is to be your life from now on. This is your own fault, you know. They warned you over and over, but you wouldn't listen. You were too proud of yourself and all that you did."

She shows signs of being alive after turning on her back to look at the ceiling, which rests only four inches away from her face, then thinks "then he, that _friend_ of yours, showed his true colors, destroyed everything you worked so hard for, and now..."

To make sure that she truly is there, that she really is alive, she places a hand on her cheek and another on her hair, knocking off her hat, then starts caressing herself, then suddenly stops, nods, then says "yup, I'm still here, and now... this is my home."

Unknown to her, many of her friends, including many kappa, a few tengu, humans from the village, even the vampires from the Scarlet Mansion, all work hard to restore her resort, and with help from Julia, who is still only half a body, they are improving it, taking advantage of what that vile human had destroyed to expand the resort, making it more comfortable and adding a few extra things to it, just as she was thinking of doing before.

Kyo, Flandre and Agava plant young trees and seedlings in a specially prepared area, where there seems to be grass growing over the dirt that has been dumped on a expansive, but shallow hole, and with help from dog-Ail, Suwako and Minoriko, they help them grow into small cherry trees in an instant.

At the beach, many kappa, Kanako, Aya and Byakuren work hard to make it more expansive and deeper, so that it looks like a real ocean, instead of just a small beach, while Elly and Kurumi, with no help from Yuka, try their hand at rearranging some plants and into making the mountainous area a bit more real, using robots to smooth out the rocks, making them less dangerous, while still keeping credibility.

At the racing tracks, Sanae, Minamitsu, Meiling, Marisa and Tenshi, along with many robots, all work hard to fix Nitori's rings and finish building the intended racing tracks, as well as finally link the beach water to the boat tracks, all while Yuka is happily resting on a beach chair at the entrance platform, the only place untouched by the bombs Guzman had set.

At the living area, Remilia, Sakuya, Nazrin, Chiyuri, Rika, and surprisingly enough, Reimu, help the kappa and many robots build the new apartments, making the buildings a little taller and the rooms more spacious, following Julia's instructions to perfection.

Sadly, the damage to the office area over the resort's entrance is too extensive, and nobody can come up with an idea to fix it, or make use of it.

At the main computer room, Budou, Rikako, S-Kyo and Yumemi, all work hard to fully restore Julia to her one-hundred percent, and Budou, being such a gifted genius with computers and programs, works hard to fix the bugs in Julia's programming.

Meanwhile, above ground, at the Human Village, Keine, Mokou, Kasen and Shizuha do their best to keep everyone's spirits up, especially those that lost someone to the vicious attack by Guzman.

Quick events, games, entertainment, anything they can come up with to help out.

Alice, Shanghai and Hourai, as well as Reisen and Tewi, will sometimes show up and lend a quick hand, but quickly return home without saying so much as a good-bye.

At the Myouren temple, Kogasa, Nue, Ichirin and Unzan help Shou with the little fairy's recovery.

By now, Shou has managed to restore her physicality, and looks like a normal fairy, though with a tanned skin for some odd reason, however, the little fairy is still confused, and will sometimes attack others without any provocation, as well as groping Ichirin, or streaking all over the temple.

Gensokyo slowly recovers from the vicious human's stay, and for three whole months, while the slow recovery takes place over a stormy winter, even the youkai cease attacking humans, all while their paradise recovers from that terrible blow.

* * *

THREE MONTHS LATER

It's a beautiful spring morning in Gensokyo, and the trees and bushes have recovered most of their leaves.

The snow is finally gone and flower buds can be seen everywhere, waiting for Lily White's call of spring.

At Ail's house, inside Ail's room, the young boy sleeps away while buried under his sheets.

He moans as he stretches his arms and legs and reveals himself from under the sheets, then realizes he has a pair of cute, glistening green eyes, glowing blonde hair, a warm smile, wearing a white hat and dress with red waves over the edges, staring back at while sitting on him.

He stares back at Lily for a moment, then gasps at the same time as she gleefully opens her arms and exclaims "it's SPRING!", and expels a shower of bullets all over his room.

Even covered in burn marks, Ail smiles and exclaims "LILY~! You're finally back~!"

He grabs the little fairy, jumps out of his bed, then starts spinning around, making Lily giggles as he exclaims "Lily~! So glad to see you're finally awake! And you're not trying to kill me!"

He sets the giggling fairy on the ground, heads to the door, then says "come on, let's have some breakfast!"

At the kitchen, Ail prepares tea and cooks scrambled eggs, then Budou somberly walks to the kitchen with Phredia flying beside her, then says "morning papa, good morning Lily. Mmm, smells good."

Ail smiles at Budou, and with a bright smile on his face, he says "morning Budou and Phredia! Hope you're hungry! I'm almost done here!"

Lily looks at Budou from the dinner table and waves, saying "morning! It's spring!"

As Budou and Phredia make their way to the table, and after sitting in front of Lily, Budou giggles and says "you see? Papa is here this time! It's a good spring!"

Lily smiles as she eagerly nods, and as he serves them their breakfast, Ail chuckles and says "and I'm not planning on leaving any time soon! That's a fact!"

After serving himself and sitting on the table, he smiles, claps his hands, he, Budou and Lily say at the same time "thank you for the meal", then start eating away.

While they do, after gulping his first serving, Ail says "eat up. We're going to the Hakurei Shrine after this. I think it's about time we went for Nitori ourselves, but I'd like to talk to Reimu about it first."

Both girls nod and acknowledge Ail, then continue eating away.

Later, outside the house, the girls wait for Ail to close the door, then, after he walks to them, he smiles and says "alright, let's go!", then he, Budou, Phredia and Lily take to the skies.

As they make their way to the shrine, anywhere Lily flies over immediately becomes a show of blooming flowers and bursts of new and shiny new leaves for the trees and bushes.

The spring fairy also lags behind sometimes to express herself, shooting massive danmaku waves while shouting "it's SPRING~!", then rejoins the small party.

Meanwhile at the Hakurei Shrine, packs of villagers visit early in the morning to come and see Rika, donate to the shrine, and offer their prayers to the god.

While Rika and Suzaku happily tend to the villagers, Reimu sits on the porch, drinking her tea while waiting for Lily White to bring spring to the shrine.

A young woman leaves a donation, offers her prayers to the altar, then quickly makes her way to Rika, allowing the long line behind her to move along, while only a handful of villagers go and pray to the Moriya Shrine extension as well.

The woman gets closer to Rika and Suzaku, then giggles without speaking.

Rika smiles back and asks "oh, hello miss. How may I help you?"

The black-haired woman bows slightly, then says "I just wanted to thank you and your bird for your help! If it wasn't for you, my child and I would have starved, or ended frozen to death! Thank you so much for everything!"

Rika smiles angelically, then says "it's alright, you don't have to thank us. We are just happy we could help!"

Suzaku stretches her wings, tweets long and loud, then Rika giggles and asks "oh that's right, how is your son?"

The woman sighs contently, then says "he's in school right about now. He wanted to come and see you, so I'll be coming back later."

Rika giggles, then says "I'll eagerly await for your return!"

Very suddenly, all the villagers gasp and awe with great admiration as the shrine's trees start turning pink, and countless flowers start blooming one after the other.

Rika smiles as she looks around, then twirls around along with the pink leaves and petals that suddenly start floating around her, stops and asks "wow, so beautiful! What could have caused this to happen so suddenly?"

When Rika looks up, she's met with Lily White's sparkly green eyes and warm smile, and before she can speak, Lily exclaims "Rika~! It's spring~!"

Instead of shooting her danmaku, Lily flies straight into Rika's arms, receives a sudden hug, then Rika, exclaims "Lily, so that's why!"

The woman in front of Rika is so amazed by the sight, she says "the Hakurei Shrine's spirits... are just so AMAZING!"

Rika chuckles but doesn't reply, then looks up at Ail and Budou, smiles, then Suzaku flies up to meet with them, all while Reimu blissfully enjoys her quiet time, watching the flowers bloom and the pink leaves and petals flutter all around her.

Meanwhile, at the Moriya Shrine, while sweeping the grounds, Sanae suddenly twitches and screams out loud, then looks around and rapidly says "s-something's wrong... Ugh, The faith has shifted again! Must... storm... Hakurei Shrine!"

* * *

Later, at the thawing Misty Lake, a green hat surfaces from the water between the few remaining ice patches, then makes its way to shore, heading straight toward the familiar silver tent that is now a little more hidden, thanks to the many bushes and many of the tree's leaves that have sprouted around.

Inside the tent, Agava and Rumia laugh away while eating vegetable soup and talk about random happenings.

Agava finishes laughing hard, then asks "and-and, remember when we caught Ail and Sanae together in the bathroom? He still had that fluffy tail even! HA-HA-HA! I hope the tengu has the pictures!"

Rumia laughs hard, then says "they were MAD after that!"

Agava laughs, then loudly says "so mad, they actually blasted one of the boats while chasing Aya around!"

Again, they both start laughing hard, then Rumia, who is facing at the door, stops laughing, pokes Agava's shoulder with her hand, then points to the door.

When Agava turns around, she gasps with surprise when she sees Nitori standing in front of the entrance, blushing while bashfully looking away and fiddling with her fingers.

There is a moment of silence between them, then Nitori softly asks "um.. h-hey guys. Can... can I come in?"

Agava sets her bowl on the floor, then she stands up and says "of course! You know this is your tent, and you're always welcome here!"

Nitori lower her head as though being ashamed, then giggles and says "I-I see. Um, I..."

Rumia and Agava now stand beside each other, waiting for what Nitori has to say.

The little kappa stares at the girls, blushes, then frowns as she says "I'm sorry I ran away like that. It's just... I got confused and I..."

Before she can continue, Rumia and Agava rush beside her, and while patting her head as though patting a pet, Agava says "no need to apologize. Besides, we knew where you were hiding the whole time."

Nitori stares with surprise at the girls and asks "really? But how did you find me?"

Rumia immediately asks "do you think we're that dumb?"

Agava glares at Rumia for a second, then turns to Nitori with a more friendly face and says "look, we need to tell you something. You see..."

Before she can start, Ail's voice from outside unsettles the little kappa as he calls "Agava, Rumia~! Any news yet?"

They can feel when Ail lands next to the tent, but before either girl answers, they look at Nitori, who has a nervous and almost depressed look on her face, and wait.

Nitori closes her eyes and thinks back on all that happened to her once again, then stops and looks at the girls with a more determined look in her eyes, and nods.

Agava places her hand on Nitori's shoulder and whispers "alright, it's best if you just see for yourself anyway."

With Rumia's, and Agava's direct support, Nitori slowly makes her way outside the tent to meet with Ail.

At first, she gets blinded by the light form the sun, which causes Rumia to activate her darkness and unknowingly fly away elsewhere, but after her sight adjusts, she can see Ail's brown boots, then slowly makes her way up.

She gets a good look at his black pants and admires the many pockets on them, then slowly makes her way to his violet shirt, then stops and hesitates when she reaches the neck.

Ail softly says "Nitori, my friend, I was so worried!"

Hearing the word "friend" gives her the push she needs to look up to his smiling face, and finally, after staring at him, she feels peace.

Ail chuckles, then playfully says "welcome back to the surface, miss Kawashiro."

Nitori suddenly rushes to Ail and wraps her arms around his ribs and exclaims through tears "I'm so sorry! Ail, I'm so sorry! You, grandpa, Rika, Julia, you all wanted to help, but I didn't listen. I even tried to kill you, and you still call me friend! I'm so sorry for everything!"

Ail hugs Nitori back to help her calm down, then smiles as he says "hey, hey, what's friendship without a few bumps here and there, huh? Come on, really. If it were for that, I'd have stopped talking to Remilia since day one!"

Though having calmed down, Nitori still sobs on Ail's chest, then Agava asks "so, are you ready to go home at last?"

Nitori nods, then Ail says "alright then. Come on, everybody's waiting for you!"

Nitori suddenly lets go of Ail and steps away from him and Agava, and with fright in her eyes she says "please, they'll kill me! I.. I ignored their warnings and even threatened them! Please, just take me to the river so I can look at it one more time, then take me back here!"

Ail sighs, sits on the ground, then looks at Nitori as he says "I can't do that. They would never forgive us if we did."

Nitori stares silently at the young boy, then Agava asks "girl, think. Wouldn't they have come for you already if they wanted to kill you?"

Ail doesn't wait for her to answer as he says "so that rules out the whole 'killing' thing, but then, what were they doing this whole time, you ask? Simple. Come with us and find out."

Nitori stares with doubt at her two friends in front of her, but before she answers, Ail opens a gap to his right, then Agava says "we promise, if you don't like it, we're giving you six large baskets full of cucumbers."

Ail quickly adds "I'll even throw in some green tea if you like."

Nitori's face remains filled with doubt, but when she looks into her friends' eyes, she finally calms down, slowly gets closer, and once in reach, she extends her right arm to them.

Ail gets up from the ground with a smile, and as Agava grabs Nitori's hand, he stands next to his gap and gestures them to head inside.

* * *

Agava and Nitori are the first to exit the gap, and are quickly followed by Ail, who immediately closes it up.

Nitori looks in front of her and after a few moments, her eyes expand, her mouth hangs open, and all she can do is gasp as she looks straight at the rebuilt gates of her resort.

She turns around to look at Ail, points at the large gates, then asks "is that... really...?"

Ail nods, then the gates open up, revealing many kappa behind it, some with party hats on, and all with wide smiles on their faces.

Nitori remains standing in the same spot, shocked at the miraculous sight before her.

She can see the beach is much larger, the apartments have more rooms, the hot-tubs have been relocated, but what finally snaps her out of her shock and confusion is the sight of Julia, standing out like a big red sore thumb between all her kappa friends, and next to her is little Budou, who smiles at Nitori and gestures her to get closer.

Nitori looks back at Ail and Agava with great shock in her eyes, then Ail smiles and taps Agava on the shoulder, whispering "she needs some support after all."

Agava chuckles, then whispers back "heh, that vampire owes me a free meal. Kappa girl reacted just as I said she would."

Ail taps the shadow youkai's shoulder again, gently forcing her to move, to which Agava just chuckles some more, then heads straight to Nitori.

Before she can reach the kappa, Nitori rushes off on her own and heads straight at Julia.

She stops right in front of the hologram, looks up at her, then smiles and ask "Julia? Is that really you?"

At first, Julia greets her with a cold and straight face, but she suddenly smiles warmly, nods, then says "yes lady Nitori, it's me. Miss Budou fully restored me to my former state. Still, there are some things that seem a bit fuzzy. Tell me, wasn't there a man before?"

Nitori giggles, somehow unaffected by Guzman's memory, looks at Budou, who flips her thumb up, then looks back at Julia and says "it's all ancient history."

From the left side of the crowd, a familiar voice asks "ancient? My, would someone be talking about me?"

Nitori gasps at the sight of her grandfather as he makes his way through the crowd of kappa, and before he knows it, Nitori launches herself toward him, hugging him tightly and exclaiming "grandpa, you're alive! Grandpa, I'm so sorry!"

The old kappa places a gentle hand on the back of Nitori's head for comfort, then says "now, now child. This old kappa has a few more years under his shell! Now stop apologizing. You fought for what you believed was right, and I am proud of you for being so brave! A little misguided, though."

Nitori pushes herself from her grandfather to look at him with a smile, then giggles and says "just like my grandfather!"

After a quick laugh, the old kappa raises his hand while saying "well, what are we standing here for! Come on, you have to see what we did here! Come, come!"

The crowd of kappa, Budou and Agava quickly turn around to head straight toward the apartments, while Ail stands just outside the gates, smiling warmly at the sight, then sighs and turns around, saying to himself "I'll come and pick them up later."

After he takes his first step, he stops when Nitori exclaims "hey, you stop right there mister!"

Ail turns his neck to look at Nitori, who asks "where do you think you are going? Aren't you coming with us?"

Ail smiles, hiding the pain in his heart as he says "but you told me I wasn't welcome once your resort was rebuilt."

Nitori gasps and covers her mouth with both hands, then looks at her feet in shame and says "oh, I did say that, right?"

There is a moment of awkward silence, then Nitori says "well, you know what? I didn't make it official, so... if you want to, you can enter. I'd be... honored if you did."

The pain in Ail's heart immediately lifts, evident in the warmth of his smile, then he suddenly bows and says "it would be my pleasure."

After raising his head, Nitori notices the single tear escaping his right eye, smiles, then offers her hand to him.

As he walks toward Nitori, Budou giggles and says "papa is so sentimental, isn't he."

As the gates close, and the large crowd heads toward the many new sights and attractions of the resort, Nitori thinks "up to this day I had forgotten something very important. Sure, Guzman was a human, and it's true I thought he was really my friend, and thanks to him I could prove that kappa and humans could be friends, but even after discovering what he was, even after all he did, and all that happened between me, Rika and Ail, he was still my dear friend from that strange sukima. Still, I have to remember, Ail, Kyo, and Rika, they all came from those sukimas too. In the end, they are all my dear friends from the sukimas."

After looking around the Cherry Blossoms Picnic grounds, Nitori approaches Ail, tugs his sleeve hard, and after he turns around, she looks into his eyes, then says "thank you, my friend."

* * *

The next day, at the Hakurei Shrine, after spending just a few minutes at the shrine looking at the flowers, Marisa makes her way back home.

Rika waves at Marisa from the gate, then turns around to look at the mess of leaves and petals all over the ground, Cirno dancing around and tossing the petals she finds on the ground, and notices Reimu is entering the shrine, leaving the broom sweeping on its own.

After Cirno leaves, Aya heads inside the shrine after Reimu, then Rika sighs and says to herself "well, time to get to work then. Can't have these many petals and leaves covering the shrine. Still, they are beautiful."

Before Rika can even take one step toward the broom, from inside the shrine, Reimu calls "Rika~! Could you come here for a minute?"

Rika looks toward the shrine with curiosity, then walks to the left entrance while replaying "coming my lady~!"

Rika steps on to the porch, asking "what is it my lad-eh?", but stops right underneath the doorway with a surprised look on her face when she looks inside.

Shinki, Youmu, Tenshi, Hatate, Koakuma, Suzaku and Reimu stand in a bunch in the living room, while Aya stands away from the group with a wicked smile on her face and holding her camera just below her waist.

Rika stares at the girls, then asks "m-my, what a surprise. My lady, my friends, what's this all about?"

Reimu smiles, then says "we all got together and decided..."

Tenshi steps up and continues "we thought we should make something for you, as thanks for being such a good friend, and for being there for us!"

Youmu steps up, then says "it's not every day you find a strong and honorable opponent like you, so I came to help them!"

Koakuma quickly says "I helped with the design!", then Shinki giggles and says "this little one sure has a very artistic mind."

Hatate holds a small white box with a red ribbon lightly wrapped around it, and as she presents it to Rika, she says "here you go Rika-sis! We hope you like."

Rika is still in a bit of a shock and doesn't react until Suzaku tweets loudly, then looks at her present, smiles, then says "you... you guys did all this for me? *sniffle* You shouldn't have."

All await for Rika to open her present with eager smiles, but all she does is smile back at them with a warm smile on her face, so Reimu, holding back her anxiety, says "Rika, sweetie, you can open it."

Rika giggles, then removes the ribbon from the box while saying "I'm just so happy, but really, you guys shouldn't have."

The moment she opens her present, her face turns blue, her eyes turn to round white dots, her wings stiffen, yet she manages to retain her smile, though it seems stiff.

As she looks inside, she says "really... you shouldn't have."

Inside the box is a light-blue two piece swimsuit with clouds and flowers designs on it, however, the flowers are all suspiciously positioned.

The top has one daisy on each cup, both suspiciously placed in the center of the cup itself, while the bottom has a beautiful pink rose, suspiciously placed on the bottom.

From behind them, Aya chuckles to prevent herself from bursting into laughter, then takes as many pictures of Rika's reaction as she can.

Rika shivers, looks at her friends with her shocked smile, then asks "th-this is really... f-for me?"

Reimu slightly frowns, then asks "what? Rika, what's the matter? You... you didn't like it?"

Rika gasps, but before she can answer, the other girls frown, then Koakuma says "oh no! I-It's my fault! I should have added more flowers in the design!"

Hatate sobs, then says "I made Rika-sis sad again!"

The girls start talking amongst themselves, all with frowns on their faces, then Rika speaks loudly, getting their attention, saying "no, it's not that! Look I'm wearing it! I like it! I really do!"

The girls look at Rika, wearing her new bikini with a bashful smile on her face, then Youmu and Hatate blow streams of blood from their noses and fall on their backs on the ground.

Koakuma and Tenshi both start bleeding through their noses wile blushing and smiling, then Koakuma holds her nose and looks away, saying "I-I'm in trouble.", then drops down on the floor.

Aya can't contain her laughter as she takes as many pictures of the girls as she can, then flies away before Reimu even notices.

Shinki, Suzaku and Reimu are now the only ones still looking at Rika, Shinki with a bit of blood running down her left nostril while smiling, Suzaku fluffing up and making herself look like a feathery ball, and Reimu blushing so hard, her face seems is about to explode.

Rika stands under the doorway wearing the perfectly fitted, yet rather questionable swimsuit, which enhances her womanly features even more, and making herself even more enchanting by placing her left arm across her chest while biting her nails, lifting her left leg just slightly, blushing while looking away, and flapping her wings rapidly at sudden moments.

Reimu almost drools, but she manages to calm down and say "um, Rika, you forgot the sarong."

Rika suddenly relaxes as she stares at her mistress, then looks down to the ground to her left, where her maid clothes and box are, then notices a long, semi-translucent orange sarong inside the box.

She immediately reaches for the sarong and skillfully wraps it around her waist, making herself feel much more comfortable.

Still blushing and smiling, Reimu flips her thumb up at Rika and says "good job!"

Shinki, who has a strand of hair standing stiff on her head, wipes the blood off her upper lip, smiles at Rika, then says "don't forget the kimono dear."

Rika looks at the empty box on the ground, picks it up, stares at it for a moment, then asks "a kimono?"

The empty box bottom starts to shine, and in a second, it becomes a beautiful sky-blue kimono with white clouds designs on the sleeves, cherry blossom petals at all the edges, a red ribbon, and a hairclip that looks like it's made of glass, yet feels strong enough to be used as a weapon, if needed be.

Rika looks at Shinki, who says "it's not just for looks sweetie. The kimono itself will keep you hidden from unfriendly eyes, and the clip... well, it has my blessings in it."

Rika smiles warmly, then says "th-thank you all so much. I really appreciate this. I-I'm so thankful to have you all as my friends."

While the girls stand up, Reimu smiles and says "we just wanted to give you a little something, and to let you know how much we care about you, and how grateful we are to you."

A tear escapes Rika's right eye, and as she lifts her right hand to wipe it off, there are several clicks from outside, so Rika turns around and with embarrassment in her face, she exclaims "m-miss Aya, please stop teasing!"

As Aya flies away toward the Forest of Magic, she says "teasing? This is a GREAT story! See you in the front pages~!"

Rika whines, then Suzaku zips past Rika and chases after Aya with fire in her eyes.

There are more clicks from inside the shrine, then Rika turns around with a disappointed face and exclaims "Hatate! Really, you too?"

Hatate chuckles while pointing her cell phone camera at Rika, then says "they are memories of my Rika-sis, and they are mine alone!"

Reimu wraps an arm around Hatate, and with an ominous smile on her face, she says "I want copies, or you get another beating."

Hatate shivers, then says "free of charge!"

Rika stands under the doorway, placing her fists on her waist as she stares sternly at her friends in the shrine, then her stern face suddenly turns to a bright smile, then she starts to laugh away, leaving all inside with a confused look.

* * *

Suddenly, from behind Rika's right, Ail's gap opens up with a buzzing sound, then Ail and Budou rush straight out of it and fly toward Reimu, both excitedly calling out to her repeatedly.

They stand right in front of Reimu, both their faces freeze with surprise, then they slowly turn their heads to look at Rika.

The maid wears her regular attire once more, and waves at them with a smile on her face, and a broom on her right hand.

Again, they turn their heads to look at Reimu, and looking a bit annoyed, Reimu asks "what is it already?"

Ail and Budou look at each other, then Budou says "you tell sis."

Ail looks at Reimu, takes a deep breath, then says "Nitori finally returned home! She saw the rebuilt resort, reunited with Julia, made peace with the other kappa, hugged her grandfather, explored the renewed resort, loved every bit of it, thanked me for being her friend, took a swim in the pool, had a race on the karts, then on the boats, she beat me both times, she apologized again after having apologized already, then..."

Reimu grabs Ail by his shoulders to shut him up, smiles as she raises her left hand, then starts slapping his face hard while asking "is... there... a point... to... all... of this?"

After she lets him go, Ail feels a little dazed, shakes his head, takes another deep breath, then Budou suddenly says "Nitori has invited me, papa, all who helped rebuild the resort AND all our friends that would like to come to spend a day at the resort, and for free too!"

Ail slumps, whines, then says "come on~! I wanted to say it."

Budou shrugs, chuckles, then says "you took too long papa."

Reimu smiles, looks straight at Rika with a glint in her right eye, then says "you hear that Rika? You get to try out your gift after all!"

Rika sweats, but manages to smile as she says "oh, that's great my lady.", then turns around and says to herself "darn it all Ail, you have the worst timing ever."

Ail notice's Rika's displeasure and asks "gift? Did we miss her birthday?"

Reimu looks straight at Ail, and with a mischievous face she says "it was just a small thank you gift... Say~, Ail-kun, maybe we should make one for you too."

Ail notices the suspiciously mischievous stare from Reimu as she looks at him up and down, then looks around at the other girls, all looking at him with hungry eyes, then smiles nervously and says "er, i-it's alright, really! Um, I better go tell Remilia the good news, so..."

He turns around and realizes Rika has closed the door and placed a charm on it, saying "sorry, my lady's orders. Still, you earned it."

He looks at Budou and realizes she gone, then looks at the ceiling and notices Mima fazing through it and saying "I'll take good care of her."

He looks at Reimu and realizes she placed an amulet on his wrist, and now she, Youmu, Koakuma, Hatate, Shinki and even Tenshi are all staring at him with wicked smiles.

Ail screams as he tries to run away, but the girls are too quick.

The girl's voices can be heard outside the shrine, and over at the shrine's storage house, where Suika and Mima drink sake and Budou looks curiously back at the shrine.

She can hear Youmu saying "I got his measurements!"

Koakuma says "I know the perfect design!"

Shinki says "a good blessing here and there for good measure!"

Tenshi says "ooh, we should try for these!"

Ail screams for help, then Hatate says "oh I'm beating Aya's paper with THIS story!"

Reimu shouts "Rika, hold him! Make sure he can't move those arms!"

Ail screams again, then Rika says "I'm sorry, but it's my lady's orders!"

Budou looks terrified toward the shrine, shivers, then says "just wait until mama finds out about this."

A bright star falls straight down toward the shrine and breaks right through the reinforced roof, then Budou can hear Sanae as she shouts "don't worry Ail-kun, I'm coming to save you!"

Reimu and Tenshi shout "she broke through the roof?"

Koakuma says "before you save him, have a look at **this** design!"

There is a long moment of silence, then Sanae suddenly says "oh my, is that moon...? Oh, look at that night sky! Oh, look how cute it is!"

There is another short pause, then Sanae shouts "don't let him go! Ail, this is magnificent!"

Ail shouts "somebody help ME~!"

Reimu and Tenshi shout "she broke through the roof!"

Budou sighs and face palms, Phredia flies out of her heart and lands on her left shoulder, then the little bat youkai looks at Phredia with disappointment and says "come on, let's go home."

Phredia nods, then Budou flies away, saying "don't worry miss Mima. Phredia will take care of me. See you later~!"

Mima extends her arms as though trying to grab Budou, but restrains herself, takes a gulp out of her sake cup, crosses her arms under her chest, and while Suika fills her cup again, she says "I'm going after hunk. That little devil should have a good idea for him."

* * *

The End...?

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Budou, Phredia, Kyo, Luna, Agava, S-Kyo and Guzman were created by Willie G.R.

Rika Onkamikami and Suzaku were created by Snapshot 2010

NOV 20 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**And finally, we have reached the end. Everything's back to normal, peace is restored, Nitori is back home, love and pheromones are in the air, Rika's got two new outfits, Ail's getting a new one as well. Ah, all is right in the world. But wait... where's the washtub? What the hell? No, no, no, no! Alright, that's it, we're going for the extra! Besides, Nitori's return was just too easy! I want to write a teensy bit more about it. Alright, it's decided! The washtub's glorious return will be on the Extra chapter, so wait for it! It's got a bone to pick with all. Oh that's right, little dog-Ail got sparkly black eyes, a fluffy brown tail, floppy brown ears, and now has a wet pink nose too. Aww, isn't he cute? Rumia wants to eat him. Will she get to? That sounds like something evil for me to use in the future. Ah well, hope you enjoyed this. Take care.**

**Oh yes, just wanted to ask to those who don't like this, to please stop reading. Really, if you don't like something, you leave it alone. I love my ideals, and I love sharing them with those who like them. If you are not one of them... don't read. Simple, ze.  
**


	21. Chapter 21

It's a calm and peaceful morning at the Hakurei Shrine, where Reimu sits over the porch of the shrine, drinking a hot cup of tea and enjoying her snacks while reading the Bunbunmaru Newspaper.

On the grounds, Rika sweeps away all the many flower petals and leaves that keep scattering around, making sure the path to the donation box is clean and accessible.

As Reimu casually flips the next page, she sees the picture of Remilia and Flandre on Ail while his Yozoragan mode is active, and although Reimu knows what Remilia is doing, she still thinks it looks like the vampire is having her way with Ail, and beside the pictures, Aya writes "Vampire Love Overwhelms All."

From the Forest of Magic, causing the entire land of Gensokyo to rumble, Ail shouts "SHA~MEI~MA~RU~! I'm going to KILL YOU~!"

Reimu casually flips the page, saying to herself "hmm, that's old news, like always."

She takes a bit of tea into her mouth as she turns the page, and almost immediately spits it all back out and quickly starts to laugh so loud, even Suzaku has to fly over to her to stare at her with curiosity.

Reimu just continues to laugh away and even starts kicking the ground as she holds her stomach.

Concerned, Rika loudly asks "my lady, what's the matter? What got you into such a fine mood?"

Reimu laughs away for a bit longer, takes a few deep breaths, picks the paper up again, even though it's soaked with tea, then reads "ha-hah! Listen to-hah... listen to this! Kn-known witch loses a danmaku challenged to the Ice Fairy from the Misty Lake! HAHAHA! The-the excuse she gave wa-was that she didn't want to harm the fairy, so she... so she used FLASHLIGHT SPELLS I-INSTEAD OF HER LASERS!"

Again, Reimu starts to laugh away so hard, she falls to the ground while holding on to her sides, and uncontrollably starts to bang her fists on the ground, banging as hard as she can to calm herself and stop.

Suzaku starts to caw, making it sound as though she's laughing too, so Rika frowns at them both, places her fists on her waist, then says "Suzaku, miss Reimu! You shouldn't laugh like that! She just... she was just being nice to the ice... he-heh She-she was just being nice!"

Unable to control herself, Rika places her hand over her mouth and starts to giggle, then progresses to chuckling, then stops when she feels the wind around her change.

She frowns as she looks around the shrine, stops when looking at the tree to the right, then says "miss Shameimaru, you shouldn't go around writing stories like this! Look what you did to miss Reimu!"

The shrine maiden, now accompanied by the vermillion bird, continues to laugh away while sitting on the ground, Suzaku also crying as she laughs away.

Aya jumps down from the tree, revealing herself covered in burn marks and bandages from Suzaku's attack, and sternly says "miss Rika, with all due respect, I only write the truth. Whether it be tragic, funny, or scary, I will always write the truth!"

Rika sighs as she rubs her forehead, then Aya angrily says "hey, it's not my fault Marisa underestimated that ice fairy! She even warned the witch she learned how to freeze danmaku!"

Reimu and Suzaku stop laughing at the same time, Reimu sits up, looks at Aya in surprise, then asks "really? She can freeze danmaku now?"

Aya nods, then says "that's how she got Marisa... Although, Marisa looked fine after the battle. That little ice fairy was really beat up. She only won because Marisa ran out of spell cards."

Reimu stares seriously at Aya, then at Rika, then suddenly says "flashlight!", and continues to laugh away along with Suzaku, making Rika sigh and face palm.

* * *

Later, Reimu, Rika, Suzaku, Mima and Aya walk out of the elevator that leads straight to Nitori's new Kappa-pa Resort, which already has it's sign rebuilt with glowing light yellow letters, and placed in an arc over the open gates.

Nitori and Julia stand right beside the gates to welcome their guests, and Reimu guesses they haven't arrived yet because of how silent it is.

As they reach the gates, Nitori and Julia bow, and Nitori says "welcome Hakurei Shrine! I was starting to think you weren't coming."

Rika bows back while Reimu looks around and say "I wonder why you say that. It looks like we're the first ones here."

Julia arrangers her glasses as she replies "you are incorrect, miss shrine maiden of Hakurei."

Nitori giggles and replies "almost everyone is here already. Even the Scarlet Mansion is here. They arrived at the same time as mister Ail and the Moriya Shrine."

Reimu looks a bit surprised, but decides to drop the subject and just chuckles, and that's when Nitori gasps and asks "wait, what about your shrine?"

Reimu flaps her arm in the air, and with a silly smile on her face, she says "it's alright. It's all taken care of."

At the Hakurei Shrine, Suika, who wears a smaller version of Reimu's shrine maiden outfit, lies on her side besides the donation box with a very discontent look on her face, and as an elderly woman rings the bell, she takes a big gulp from her gourd and thinks "why did I have to get stuck here? I wanted to have fun too!"

Yukari, who has a lazy and bored look on her face, walks toward Suika from the side of the shrine and asks "why am I stuck here? I only came to visit and she slaps me with this amulet on my back and tells me to watch the border. Really, what's her problem?"

The elderly woman stands between the youkai, and when they notice her, she chuckles for a bit before saying "so~, the shrine maiden left you in charge, and you just want to have fun, is that it?"

A glint escapes the woman's glasses as she arranges them while Suika and Yukari stare in surprise.

The woman smiles, then says "don't worry dearies, I know. I have lived long enough to know these things. Now, what do you say to having our own little bit of fun while we wait for the maiden to return, eh?"

Suika and Yukari look at each other, then back at the old lady, then look at each other again, smile, then Suika says "I'll get the drinks!", then Yukari excitedly says "I know where she hides the snacks!"

Back at the resort, Nitori sweats after Reimu's statement, but simply gestures them to head inside, saying "I-I see. Well please, come on in. You may use rooms 303 and 304."

As the girls walk by and take their keycards from Julia, Reimu says "thanks. Can't wait to try out the new pool."

Rika politely bows as she walks through, then twitches when Reimu says "and Rika, you are wearing it. I don't want to hear you complaining about it!"

Rika sighs, then says "alright my lady."

Mima takes the second keycard, snickers, then says "my swimsuit will beat the rest!"

Aya simply looks around with awe, then notices the area above the inside of the resort just above the gates is covered with a pink curtain.

Before she asks, Nitori says "we placed anti-air sentry units, so I recommend you keep away miss tengu."

Aya twitches and sweats, then says "oh, I-I see. Heh-heh."

Once the girls enter, Julia says "and that's the last of them lady Nitori."

The gates begin to slowly close on their own as Nitori sighs, then says "good, good. Then I'll go get ready too."

A glint escapes Julia's left eye as she glances at Nitori, then says "don't you worry lady Nitori, you have as much fun as you can, and let me worry about everything else."

Nitori looks at Julia with worry, but then smiles, nods, then says "alright. I'm counting on you."

* * *

A few minutes later the doors to the rooms start opening and closing as the guests exit the rooms in their swimsuits, eager to enjoy their free stay.

On the bottom rooms, Remilia, Patchouli and Flandre exit their room, Remilia wearing a pink swimsuit with a small red frill around the waist, Flandre wearing a red and gray polka-dotted two-piece with white frills on all the borders, including the top, and Patchouli wearing a simple-looking light-blue swimsuit that changes colors with lighting, and all three have their hair made into matching ponytails.

From the door to the left come Sakuya, Meiling and Koakuma, Sakuya wearing a simple black bikini, though she wears her apron over it, Koakuma wearing a rather tight red string bikini with a white sarong around her waist, obviously forced to do so, evident in the displeased look on her face as she wraps it up, and Meiling wearing a green swimsuit with a small oval hole on the abdomen and chest, and a lime-green snake dragon designs on the chest and abdomen.

Remilia stares at her servants in shock, then says to herself "they dare upstage me!", and in an act of selfish impulse, she rips the abdomen section of her swimsuit, making herself look as though she's wearing an old and tattered frilly bikini.

The girls all look at Remilia in shock, then Sakuya asks "m-my lady, why did you do that?"

From the next door, Yuka, Elly and Kurumi burst right out, laughing amongst each other.

Yuka wears her tight red plaid swimsuit, which has Elly glancing at her and drooling every time.

Elly wears a sunflower design bikini that seems to wrap itself around her skin, and Kurumi wears her white swimsuit, which Rika enhanced twice so she can really enjoy the water.

The third door opens up and Medicine walks right out with Su-San flying next to her, both wearing matching white swimsuits with frilly skirts and a red cross on the chest.

Afterward come Kyo and Luna, holding each other close while giggling and making Medicine feel sick.

Kyo wears green camouflage trunks, while Luna wears a leaf-green two piece swimsuit with a small black frill around the waist, and has her hair lose, making herself look almost like Keine, if it weren't for her red highlights.

Medicine gags when they start kissing and giggling after looking at each other, then says "come on Su-San, let's go before I puke purple again."

On the second floor, Minoriko, Shizuha and Momiji exit their room, Minoriko and Shizuha wearing matching light brown swimsuits, Minoriko's having grape vine designs to the right, and Shizuha's maple leaf designs to the left, and although both fit perfectly in their respective swimsuits, Minoriko has a more ample chest, while Shizuha has a bit more of a waist.

Momiji wears a one-piece with black at the top, white in the middle, and red at the bottom and back.

She looks at the Aki sisters, blushes, smiles, then says "I'm a bit embarrassed about this."

When the sisters take a better look, they quickly realize Momiji's figure in her swimsuit is almost flawless, then both hug each other and whine, then Minoriko says "we've been defeated again~!"

* * *

The farthest second floor door opens up and Byakuren walks out, wearing a black and white swimsuit with black crisscrossing designs over a white base on the top, fully white on the bottom front, and black on the back.

Next are Minamitsu, Unzan and Ichirin, Minamitsu wearing a teal bikini with her usual pair of white pants covering her bottom, and Ichirin wears a pink two-piece with a skirted bottom.

Last are Shou and the red-haired fairy, Shou wearing a one piece with white on the chest and dark red over the rest, and has a diamond-shaped opening on the belly.

The little red haired fairy wears a matching swimsuit, yet lacks some stuffing on top, making her stare at Shou's chest with longing.

Byakuren giggles as she points at the fairy, then says "looks like your new daughter notices some differences."

Shou's face turns beet red as she tries to cover her chest up with her arms while nervously saying "l-lady Hijiri, please. A-And don't call her my daughter."

Minamitsu smiles mischievously as she says "well, you refuse to kick her out, and now she cries when you're not around so..."

Ichirin finishes the sentence while wrapping an arm around Shou's neck, saying "so that makes you her adoptive mother."

Shou looks away to hide her pink cheeks, scratches her left cheek, and says "ah, I guess you're right."

The door closest to the elevator opens up, and from inside walk Yumemi and Chiyuri, both wearing bikinis, though Chiyuri isn't filling too much, and both swimsuits are a bit tight.

Yumemi's bikini is red with white waves in the middle of both the top and the bottom, and Chiyuri's is a blue ocean design with a single starfish suspiciously positioned on the left cup.

Yumemi stares at Chiyuri's chest, hums for a moment, then pulls her own Saboten Stock from her bottom and says "maybe another starfish will even things out. Magical Saboten Stock activate!"

Chiyuri panics and shouts "no wait-!" but it's too late, and after Yumemi presses the button, a brush with fresh red paint flies straight out of the cube and stains the left cup of Chiyuri's bikini.

The girl crosses her arms over her chest and cries "wah~! My beautiful and sexy bikini! What have you done?"

The door to their right burst open, and Rikako walks out in a purple swimsuit and a lab coat on top, blushing and looking annoyed, saying to herself "jeez, why do I have to wear one too?"

After a while s-Kyo walks out with his usual straight and stern face, wearing a pair of white trunks with red ovals trailing around the edges, and a white muscle shirt that is too big for him.

He adjusts his glasses, looks at Rikako, and says "I told you, it's illogical to ruin your lab uniform. These suits are specially made for that."

Rikako turns around and furiously says "I know, I'm the one that made them!"

* * *

On the third floor, the door next to the elevator opens op, then Suwako and Kanako walk straight out, both looking radiant and emanating a divine aura.

Kanako wears a strap swimsuit that is red on the left and purple on the right.

The strap hangs around her neck, crosses over her chest, leaves most of her upper torso bare, and has a regular polka-dot bottom that links with the upper straps.

Suwako's one-piece is lilac on the bottom and white on the top, and even though it has a childish frog motif on the front, like Kanako's, it expels radiance.

Hatate walks out last, wearing a white and blue checkered one-piece that has an opening from the chest down to her abdomen.

The door to their right opens up, and Aya and Mima walk straight out, both wearing string bikinis that, although cover them enough around the bottom, their exposed upper torso and shapely figures are more than enough to turn heads toward them, Aya's being black and red, and Mima's being bright yellow and black.

Hatate stares at them, blushes, then looks at herself and says "I'd never, like, wear something as embarrassing as that..."

She looks back at the two girls, growls inward, then whispers "stupid Aya..."

The farthest door suddenly bursts open after Marisa kicks it open.

She smiles proudly, placing her hands over her waist as she displays her black and white polka dot bikini with white frills on the top and bottom, yet she doesn't have much to fill.

She eagerly shouts "come on, come on! I want to show off!"

Next come Alice, Shanghai, and Hourai, all wearing one-piece swimsuits that accent their figures.

Alice's is half pink and half light blue, the colors merging like waves in the center, with a pink ribbon on around her waist.

Shanghai's is the same as Alice's, only hers is violet and navy blue with a violet ribbon around the waist, and Hourai's is half black and half dark red, the colors separated in a straight line, and she wears a dark red sarong around her waist.

Alice rubs her forehead, sighs, then says "you're so noisy. Besides... we got more to brag about than..."

Marisa stares at Alice with that eager and confident smile, so Alice just sighs and says "never mind.", then turns around and calls "mom, are you coming?"

From inside, Shinki replies "I'm coming~!", then walks out of the room, wearing a light blue swimsuit with a large droplet opening on the abdomen that reaches her chest, making her look as radiant as the mountain goddesses.

Even though the opening is narrow on top, her skin and features are easily spotted, as she, like the goddess that she is, is blessed with radiant and infinite beauty.

She giggles nervously and asks "what do you think girls? Do I still got it?"

Marisa's face turns blue as she starts patting her small chest, while Alice, Shanghai and Hourai smile at Shinki, flip their thumbs up, and nod in agreement.

The door to their left, and the center door both open up at the same time.

Budou and Sanae walk out of the door nearest Marisa, Budou wearing a lilac swimsuit with a teal skirt around the waist, and Sanae wearing her blue bikini with the random white stars designs.

Marisa stares at Sanae for a moment, her mouth wriggles as she feels defeated once more, then whispers "I think I want to change.", but to her dismay, Shinki and Alice are already heading to the elevator, and she doesn't have the key to open the door.

From the center door, Reimu walks out of the room, wearing a frilly pink two-piece swimsuit with tiny red polka dots, and seeing as she matches Marisa in shape, the witch looks at her and sighs with great relief.

After Suzaku flies out of the room and goes straight to the beach, Reimu calls "Rika, if you don't come out now, I'm going to cry~!"

From inside the room, Rika desperately replies "no, no! Don't cry my lady!"

The moment Rika exits the room, wearing her new bikini and showing her well-shaped body with ample chest, Marisa opens her mouth wide, her face turns blue, and her lips start to wriggle as she whimpers.

Reimu notices Marisa, bites down on her own lips to prevent herself from laughing, then says "M-Marisa, pfff... I was won- pff, wondering where you were hiding... pfff..."

Marisa walks toward Reimu with her forehead blue from depression, yet she manages a creepy smile as she says "oi, Reimu. N-nice to see you, z... ze. R... Rika, there... there you are. Oh yes, you are there."

Reimu looks at Marisa with worry, then asks "Marisa, you don't look so good. Perhaps you'd like a... pfff... flashlight?"

Reimu begins to laugh hard in front of her friend, and almost falls over the protective rails when she holds her ribs and bends down to laugh even harder.

A small ghost starts creeping out of Marisa's mouth as she smiles and says "so... you know about that huh. That's alright... I was just being nice to that ice fairy... Just being nice."

Rika notices Marisa's spirit escaping her body, then panics and shouts "oh-no, miss Marisa! Please, snap out of it! It's ok, miss Reimu understands!"

Reimu continues to laugh away so hard, her cheeks start turning red.

Before Marisa dies from depression and Reimu dies from laughter, they all recover when Sanae suddenly shouts "Ail-kun, come on out already!"

From inside the room, Ail shouts "no way! Sanae, I'm not doing it!"

* * *

Sanae stands in front of the open door, staring angrily inside while placing her hands on her hips and impatiently taps her left foot.

Budou sighs and face palms, and just as Phredia springs right out of her heart, wearing a glistening white bikini, Budou says "come on Phredia, this is too embarrassing."

Phredia nods, then she and Budou hurry to the elevator, where Shinki, Alice, Shanghai and Hourai wait for it to come.

Meanwhile, Sanae loudly says "Ail-kun, come on out already! I already told you, you look adorable!"

Ail immediately reply "I look stupid! Leave me alone!"

Reimu, Rika and Marisa approach Sanae with curious faces, then Reimu asks "what's going on?"

Sanae sighs and says "Ail-kun says his new swimwear is embarrassing. I already told him he looks cute, but he just won't listen."

Reimu's face immediately turns mischievous, and while sneering, she gets closer to Sanae's ear and whispers.

Rika stares at her mistress and says "my lady, you are plotting again."

Sanae suddenly gasps, her lips wriggle as she frowns, tears start flowing down her eyes, then she covers her face with her hands and cries "my Ail-kun hates my gift~!"

From inside, Ail says "Reimu, stop helping already!"

Sanae sobs and bawls, then finally says "and even after I spent all night putting the finishing touches! Ail-kun hates me~!"

From inside the room, Ail desperately shouts "don't cry! Sanae, don't cry! I'm coming out already!"

Ail desperately runs toward Sanae and grabs her shoulders, hurriedly saying "it's alright, I'm out, I'm out!"

He wears a dark-blue shirt with a black mountain design on the bottom, and a full moon on the chest, a matching set of trunks with the full moon suspiciously placed on the center of it, and wears a thick matching dog tail, a headband with matching dog ears that have a plastic golden moons hanging from the tips of the ears, and also wears a pair of matching dog paw mittens and dog paw boots.

Sanae lifts her head, winking and sticking out her tongue at him, and when Ail realizes he's been tricked, Reimu has already kicked the door shut.

Marisa stares at Ail for a moment, then sighs and swipes some sweat from her forehead, then thinks "phew. This is more embarrassing than me losing to Cirno. Way to go Ail."

Reimu chuckles as she stares mischievously at Ail, then smiles and says "well, glad to see it fits. Really, it's a miracle, considering we made it in just one day."

Ail sweats, his eyes hide under his hair, and sounding worried, he says "you're really enjoying this."

Sanae places a gentle hand on the back of Ail's head and rubs him softly while saying "aww its' alright Ail-kun. I already told you, you look cute."

Reimu and Marisa snicker while Reimu whispers "yeah, cute."

Ail wants nothing more than to send danmaku waves at the girls, but sighs to calm himself down, looks into Sanae's glistening eyes, then smiles and reluctantly says "let's go. At least I get to see you in your bikini again, so I guess it's not so bad."

Ail and Sanae look into each other's eyes, get closer and closer to each other, then Marisa clears her throat, and while looking away with a red face, she says "ahem... spectators here."

Reimu bumps Marisa's shoulder with her own and says "spoilsport."

As they make their way to the elevator doors, which by now are deserted, while the elevator takes the others down to the ground floor, Rika gets closer to Ail and whispers "you came in at the worst possible time yesterday, so consider the tail a gift from me."

Ail smiles quietly, then whispers back "you synthesized something to it. What was it?"

Rika winks, then speeds up to get away.

Reimu approaches Ail, then whispers "glad to see you like your gift Ail-kun."

A vein pulsates on Ail's forehead while he manages to smile, then he sinisterly whispers back "I am going to get you for this~!", hissing as he says the last word.

Reimu simply chuckles and loudly says "at least you don't use flashlights to fight!", then starts to laugh hard.

Marisa suddenly slumps and groans, then shouts "I was just being nice!"

* * *

Later, at the regular pool, Ail and Sanae keep to themselves at one of the farthest corners, giggling while kissing, Ail without his shirt, paws or boots, but still wearing the ears and tail.

Sanae holds Ail tight and constantly squeezes him against her, whispering to his ear "you're so cute."

At first, Ail is just enjoying himself and doesn't mind his embarrassing outfit, but suddenly starts to ponder, and without putting much thought into it, he takes his dog ears off.

Immediately, Sanae loses interest, lets go, and starts talking to Meiling, who is chatting away with Koakuma to her right.

Ail stares at Sanae for a moment, then places his ears back, and just like magic, Sanae turns around and starts snuggling with him once again.

Ail blushes and smiles, then suddenly gasps and pushes Sanae away, saying "just a second."

A few moments later, Ail wears the four dog paws and sits on the underwater steps with Sanae sitting on his lap, squeezing him tightly and whispering "my cute little Ail-kun."

Ail's blissful smile and pink cheeks tells the others the gift made to him is being appreciated greatly, and so, the few girls in there, position themselves on the other side of the pool, giving Ail and Sanae their space, staring at the couple and sighing constantly.

Meanwhile, in the center of the second pool, which is much larger than the one Ail and Sanae are in, Marisa has a more natural face, having forgotten her two humiliations after exiting the rooms.

She chatters away with Reimu and Remilia, who proudly says "Rika is a great ally, you know. She made our swimsuits special. Now me and Flan can be inside these pools and not be as affected by the water like before."

Reimu and Marisa chuckle, then continue to chatter away. Behind them are Sakuya, Flandre, Shinki, Byakuren, Hatate, Chiyuri, Yumemi, Alice, Shanghai and Hourai, along with other kappa and villagers.

All of them gasp, and the women, save Shinki, Byakuren and Flandre, start sinking into the water, hiding their chests with a look of shame on their faces.

Remilia, Reimu and Marisa look back with curiosity, but then gasp when they see a perfect womanly figure walking around the pool's edges, heading toward the shallow parts.

All three girls' faces turn blue, their eyes turn to white disks, they look at their own chests, then slowly sink into the water, Marisa whimpering as she hides.

On the shallow side, Rika waves at her friends, then all of a sudden, all the shamed faces turn to blushing faces, although Flandre just stares at all with curiosity, not knowing what is going on.

Meanwhile, as Rika unwraps her sarong to get inside the pool, she accidentally activates her Soraogan mode, making herself look twice as radiant, then spreads her wings open as she struggles to untie the knot.

Finally, after it comes off, Rika sighs and drops it on the ground, then heads inside the pool, but shrieks and stops when her foot is just about to touch the water after noticing it's now colored dark red.

Rika looks towards her friends with a shocked face, unknowingly deactivates her Soraogan mode, then screams and shouts "wha-what happened?"

Both men and women float on their backs with their noses spilling out blood without stop, except for Reimu and Byakuren, who hover above the water with bright red faces, and Flandre, who giggles and splashes herself with the bloody water, saying "yay~! It's been a long time since I had a good blood bath like this!"

Rika is about to panic, but looks to her right, calms down, and says "oh, miss Nitori! My, how cute!"

Nitori stands next to the bloody water, wearing a navy blue swimsuit that fits her just right, and has her hair loose, a rare sight.

She looks at the water just as the blood rapidly returns to their respective owners, and just as Flandre complains, the people at the pool cheer for Nitori.

The little kappa bashfully looks away, then says "please, don't mind me. Carry on with what you were doing."

Before anyone speaks, Rika says "um, I rather they just carry on."

Nitori giggles, then looks around and asks "oh... I wonder if they are coming at all?"

* * *

Moments later, Rika and Nitori join Remilia, Reimu and Marisa and chatter away, though Marisa continues throwing furious glares at Rika's chest while covering her own by crossing her arms.

The lights suddenly go off, everybody gasps and screams, then Nitori shouts "nobody panic, please! Julia, are you there?"

Julia's voice echoes all over the resort as she says "ladies and gentlemen, please welcome a very special guest! Coming all the way from heaven, miss Tenshi Hinanai~!"

Two beams of light from nowhere start moving all around, then finally cross each other, and in the middle, wearing a tight two-piece multi-colored swimsuit that reveals a shapely body with a flat chest, and standing on a keystone while looking down on everyone, is Tenshi, smiling confidently at all in the pool.

The celestial opens her mouth, takes a deep breath of air, then says "greetings everyone- KYAAH~!", but before she can say much, she is bombarded by green stars, red glowing needles, a glowing red bat, four knives, two laser beams, and after exploding and falling on her face on the ground, Hatate jumps on her head, takes various pictures of Tenshi's risen back, snickers, then flies back into the water.

Rika gasps at the sight and shouts "oh no! Tenshi, are you alright?", and immediately jumps out of the pool to aid her friend.

Before she reaches her, the lights come back on and Agava and Rumia pop their heads from Tenshi's left and right.

Agava wears a pink swimsuit with random white petal designs, which looks surprisingly well on her, considering the color, and fits her new body perfectly.

Rumia wears a black swimsuit with absolutely no design, but looks slimming on her.

Agava looks at Tenshi and says "I told her this wouldn't end well."

Rumia smiles and asks "did you really~?"

Nitori's eyes seem to fill with life the second she sees Agava and Rumia, and with a quick jump, she's out of the water and running toward her friends, exclaiming "Agava, Rumia, you made it! I started to think you didn't want to come!"

Nitori jumps between the two girls, who now stand right next to each other, then wraps an arm around their necks, almost crying as she says "thank you for coming!"

Agava blushes as she confidently says "like we would miss this! We're just late 'cuz I was looking for a new swimsuit."

Rumia chuckles, then says "she was so~ lucky! That antique shop only had that one left."

Rika places Tenshi's blissfully smiling head on her lap as she treats her wounds and says "my, what a coincidence. Still, I didn't know you liked such bright colors."

Tenshi whispers to herself "this is so worth it."

Agava blushes and looks away as she mumbles "yeah well... whatever."

Yuyuko slowly floats down from the artificial sky, wearing a yellow bikini with a top that is too small for her, yet she doesn't seem to mind, and after landing, she looks to the pool, jumps and wave at everyone, making most of the girls inside glare back at her and sink back into the water after seeing her chest jiggle a lot.

Flandre giggles as she points at Yuyuko, and loudly says "wow, those jiggle more than Meiling's!"

Yuyuko looks around with a whimsical smile, spots Byakuren and Shinki in the pool, waves at them, then looks up and says "Youmu~! Hurry up! I want you to come and meet my friends."

Youmu and her ghost half slowly float down from above the holographic artificial sky with an ashamed look on her face, the white ghost looking almost pink with shame as well.

Youmu wears a sporty swimsuit with a black and white checkered neck, wine upper torso, black on the bottom and back, and with a small oval hole that reveals her bellybutton.

After she lands, she sighs as she looks at Nitori, bows, then says "sorry for intruding like this."

Nitori giggles and replies "it's fine. Just behave."

Youmu bows again, then notices Rika as she helps Tenshi stand up, and when Rika tries to greet her, Tenshi trips, making Rika move suddenly, then a stream of blood gushes out of Youmu's nose as she falls on her back with a smile after seeing the splendid sight of Rika's jiggling chest.

Rika panics and shouts "Youmu~! Someone help!", while Yuyuko giggles and says "my, I got that very same reaction from her. Youmu is such a healthy young girl."

Meanwhile, Youmu's ghost half flies around Youmu's unconscious body, now looking red, and getting redder when pointing its head toward Rika.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the beach area, Kurumi eagerly flies around the shallows, splashing water everywhere as she excitedly exclaims "I'm playing in the water, THE WATER!"

Budou and Phredia cover their faces when Kurumi starts running on the water and kicks water and sand all around, then both giggle and Budou says "miss Kurumi is so excited! Must be nice to finally be able to play in the water."

Away from the shore, Medicine and Su-San finish building an impressive sand castle, and after swiping her forehead and with a smile on her face, Medicine looks at Su-San and says "we did it. The perfect sand castle!"

From her right, Elly, who keeps drooling over Yuka, who lies on a leaning beach chair and sleeps away, turns around to look at the sand castle and says "wow, it's really nice. I made one for miss Yukarin and me, but... it broke."

Elly turns around to stare at Yuka again, but the flower youkai is already holding her by her neck and saying "Elly, you are starting to bother me. Go do something else for a while."

Like flinging off a mere fly, Yuka tosses Elly toward the now thicker and deeper jungle at the right side of the beach, then resumes her sunbathing.

When Elly crashes on the ground, she hears a quick "mukyu-!", and feels as though she hits something hollow, yet hard.

Patchouli stands up from the ground, dusting her arms while saying "what is going on? I just want to study these strange plants. No need to attack me."

As Elly gets up, rubbing her head and repeating "ow-ow-ow-ow", a raspy voice asks "help. Could someone give this young kappa a hand?"

Elly and Patchouli look at each other, then Patchouli casually says "that's right. You landed right on top of a kappa."

Elly shrieks in panic and quickly looks around, finding Nitori's grandfather lying on his shell while trying to stand up.

Elly quickly gives him a hand and pulls him back on his feet, excitedly saying "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry sir!"

The old kappa smiles, strikes himself with his fist on his chest, then says "no need to fret sweetie, I'm tough as nails! Yup, you won't find a more sturdy kappa in these parts, young lady."

Elly suddenly feels her heart skip a beat, and just stays staring at the kappa.

The old creature smiles at Elly and offers his elbow as he asks "would you grace this young spirit with your company miss?"

Elly instinctively accepts, smiles, then says "it will be my pleasure."

Patchouli stares as they two giggle and walk back to the beach, then says to herself "interesting. This could end in the crossing of species. I must investigate more."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the farthest left side of the beach, Aya and Mima lie on towels on the sand, wearing sunglasses, soaking in some artificial sun and turning most attention toward them.

Aya stretches out and says "Ah~! This is the life. Got to hand it to you Mima, you were right about these swimsuits."

Mima giggles, then casually says "they are perfect for catching a man or two as well. Just be careful you don't pick up a complete pervert."

Aya suddenly twitches and looks around with a terrorized look, then notices many male kappa, some tengu, and many human villagers are all staring at them, some even drooling.

Aya panics, feeling as though she's being stripped down with their eyes, then nervously whispers "h-hey, Mima. Maybe we should cover ourselves up a bit more."

Mima is now asleep, and mumbles incoherently as a response.

Aya starts to tremble, summons her wings, then covers herself up, trying to do so as discretely as possible, all while looking around with her nervous eyes under the dark sunglasses.

A little farther behind them are Shou, the little red-haired fairy, Kyo and Luna, playing volleyball with a rather colorful beach ball.

Kyo and Luna make a perfect team, with Luna working as defense, and Kyo playing offensively.

Shou has to work twice as hard, as the little fairy gets so nervous whenever the ball heads her way, she curls up and starts shivering.

Even though she seems uneven, she's already scored twelve times, while Kyo and Luna have only scored nine, the scoreboard being in Unzan's hands.

The balls flies straight to Kyo and Luna shouts "all yours darling!"

Kyo jumps and strikes the ball with the palm of his hand, sending it straight at the little fairy, who immediately whimpers and curls up on the sand, where she starts shivering violently.

Shou gets in front of the little fairy, bumps the ball to the air, jumps after it, then strikes it down hard, sending it between the couple, whom jump to intercept, but end up falling on the sand just before the ball lands.

A kappa wearing a referee shirt blows a whistle and exclaims "game set!"

Ichirin adds the score to Shou and the little fairy while Unzan stares curiously, then Shou starts jumping around, excitedly saying "yay, we won! We won little fairy!"

The red-haired fairy looks around with fright, then looks at Shou as she excitedly jumps around, and jumps on the tiger youkai, lightly wrapping her arms around her neck, giggling away as Shou keeps jumping around, making the fairy flail about.

Kyo and Luna sit up on the sand, and as they recover, Luna says "boy, Shou, you got a gift there. You played both offense and defense on your own and still have energy to jump around."

Shou giggles and raises her right hand, making the peace sign with her fingers, along with the little fairy who seems to be mimicking her, then says "well I am a disciple of Bishamonten. Wouldn't be much to say about me if I didn't do my best, right?"

Luna smiles and giggles, then says "it's still impressive...", then looks behind and asks "isn't that right Kyo? ...Kyo?"

She stares at Kyo as he stands dumbstruck on the sand, looking toward the water.

When she follows his line of sight, she realizes he, like the many other men, is staring straight at Aya and Mima.

She smiles ominously, a dangerous aura surrounds her body, then she grabs Kyo by his right ear, flings him around the air like a bed sheet, and asks "and what exactly are you looking at?"

Kyo screams in pain, then shouts "no-nothing! I swear, it was just the waves! OW~~"

There is a loud scream coming from the beach, Luna stops punishing Kyo, then both stare toward the water.

* * *

Moments earlier, while Kurumi uses her wings to fly just in top of the water and goes in deeper, Budou gets a bit bored and says "Phredia, I want to go to the race tracks."

Phredia nods, then she and Budou leave to the race tracks.

Out in the deep parts of the beach, Kurumi can't resist the temptation and decides to take a dive in the water.

She takes the plunge and sinks as deeply as she can with the impulse form the dive, clenching her eyes shut tightly, but enjoying the cool and refreshing feel of the water all over her body.

She surfaces again, gasps for air, then giggles and says "this is better than I thought! Oh, to think I was so terrified of the water before. Meeting Rika was the best thing that could ever happen... oh, but it's starting to tingle. Better get out."

Kurumi tries to flap her wings and fly out of the water, but being submerged has made her wings too heavy, rendering her unable to fly out.

She starts to worry and calls "um... umm, Budou! Budou I can't get out!"

When she looks toward the shore she realizes Budou is gone, then she starts to panic and loudly says "um, help! S-somebody? Please, help... I can't..."

The water starts to make the skin on her legs tickle, making her think she's being consumed, then despair finally gets to her and she screams as loud as she can, then shouts "I can't get out! Help~!"

The entire beach is now alert of Kurumi, and from the new set of foliage on the right-most edge of the beach, Suzaku flies out and says "Rika-sama! One of the vampires is drowning!"

From the pool, Rika, who is happily chatting with Reimu, Marisa, Remilia, Flandre and Tenshi, suddenly gasps and flies straight out of the pool, and as she flies over Ail and Sanae over at the smaller pool, she shouts "Kurumi's in trouble!"

Ail gasp and exclaims "Kurumi?", then flies after Rika while still holding on to Sanae, who says "don't you dare let go~!"

After arriving at the beach, Rika and Ail, who refuses to let go of Sanae, land right in front of the awestruck crowd, which stand close to the shore, and when they look to the water, they sigh and Rika says "good, it's taken care of."

Swimming with all his might, Kyo rapidly approaches Kurumi, who is no longer moving and is starting to sink.

He clenches his teeth and tenses his muscles, making himself look more buff than normal, then starts stroking those arms hard, using a lot his energy, even grunting with ever stroke.

After reaching the vampire, Kyo wraps his left arm around her waist, says "hold on little one. I got 'cha", then starts grunting as though swimming against the currents, when there's obviously none.

The people at the shore start cheering and clapping as Kyo gets rapidly closer to the shore, and now, even Elly, Nitori's grandfather, and Patchouli, all are cheering for Kyo as they watch him save the vampire, though Patchouli starts coughing and decides to just wave her left arm, while holding her chest with her right.

Kyo finally reaches the shore, and after standing up, her reveals that instead of his camouflage trunks, he's wearing a red fundoshi, all his muscles are twice as toned, he looks more buff than normal, and the drops of water seem to fall in slow-motion from his body.

He stands tall where the water and the sand touch, holding the unconscious Kurumi like a princess, then the water behind him seems to explode, a light shines brightly from behind him and accents his shapely muscles as the water falls around him in slow motion, glistening as though celebrating his bravery, and finally, six shaggy men crying manly tears of joy kneel in groups of three to Kyo's left and right, waving their open hands at him as though praising him.

The women in the crowd start swooning for him, some scream out of excitement before fainting, while others start flapping their hands in front of their faces.

Patchouli is no exception as she starts fanning herself with her hand as she says "huff... i-it's getting hot over here..." then faints.

The nose-bleeding Koakuma appears out of nowhere, exclaiming "Patchouli-sama, don't die yet! It's not over!"

Aya and Mima hug each other tightly while keeping their eyes glued over Kyo, both blushing as they shiver, and Mima manages to whisper "he... he's such a hunk!"

Aya trembles and loses control over her wings, then says "shit, it's too much! God, look at THAT! The water! It's sizzling over his pecs!"

All the girls but Medicine, Rika and Sanae seem to be going head-over-heels for Kyo and his sudden macho manliness, and when Elly lets out a longing sigh, Nitori's grandfather stomps the sand, looks back at Elly, then says "pardon me beautiful. There's something I must do."

The old kappa approaches Kyo, they look at each other, then the kappa stands to Kyo's right. Kyo signals someone over the crowd to take Kurumi off his hands, then Yuka walks nervously toward him, blushing while trying to look intimidating, yet failing to do so, then takes Kurumi and quickly backs away.

Just as Patchouli sits back up and looks over at Kyo again, Koakuma sighs and says "finally. Don't die again, I want to enjoy this!"

Suddenly, Nitori's grandfather rips his long white robe off and reveals a perfectly shaped and toned body, and a red and black fundoshi, then looks at Kyo and says "pose with me young whipper snapper, and don't lag behind!"

Kyo, in a deep masculine tone says "just try not to break a hip, old man."

Both kappa and human start flexing their muscles, arching and stretching their arms, flexing their pectorals, alternating each rapidly, bending their knees, making their thighs look tighter and buffer, their calves inflate, and all to drive the women, and even some men nuts, making them scream and faint over the sight.

Patchouli opens her eyes wide, gasps, falls on her seat, then stops breathing, sitting sideways on the sand.

A medical robot rushes by, places a gas mask on her face, then Patchouli starts breathing in deeply.

Koakuma doesn't even notice, as she is fixed on the two bulging men over the shore.

Luna suddenly jumps in front of Kyo and shouts "alright you harpies, you stay away from him! He's MINE!", then grabs Kyo by his waist and flies away so fast, even Aya can't keep up.

Elly isn't as fast, and other women start flocking over the old buff kappa, but like the gentleman that he is, he loudly says "ladies, ladies, I'm sorry, but I already have a date!"

He points at Elly, who stares back in shock and shivers when the old kappa points at her and gestures her to get closer.

Away from the swooning crowd, Ail sighs and says "well, at least Kurumi is safe."

Budou, who stands between Ail and Sanae, says "geez, I only left for a moment and look what happened."

Rika places her hand on her chest and sighs with great relief, then says "it's alright. The important thing is that she's safe now."

Budou and Ail stare at Rika for a moment, then both exclaim at the same time "a-ha! That's what she was wearing yesterday!"

Rika blushes and covers herself, then says "s-stop that!"

Sanae strike's Ail's head hard and asks "what are you looking at?"

Ail lies with his face on the sand, whimpers, then says "but I only have eyes for Sanae!"

Sanae's expression changes to pity as she jumps on Ail an rubs her cheek on his face, saying "I'm sorry Ail-kun~! Please don't be mad."

Rika realizes she's not wearing her sarong, gulps, takes a step back, then runs to the pool, saying "how embarrassing~!", while activating her Soraogan mode and covering herself up with her wings.

Suzaku flies after Rika, squawking as she says "master, please let me take look at you!"

* * *

Later that day, the stands at the motorized boat race tracks are filled to capacity as Minamitsu, Chiyuri, Yuyuko, and Minoriko and Shizuha, prepare to race.

All the boats are medium-sized, all have a shiny chromed wheels at the helm on the deck, and all run at moderate speeds.

Minamitsu is on a white boat with a blue striped bow, Chiyuri is on a black boat with a red bow, Yuyuko is on a pink boat with a white bow, and Minoriko and Shizuha are on an orange boat with a dark brown bow.

Julia floats on the air on front of the boats as though she were standing on the ground, then arranges her glasses and speaks.

Her voice comes from all over the resort as she says "ladies and gentlemen! The first Kappa-pa Resort boat race is about to begin! Four contestants enter, but only one will emerge victorious! Who's it going to be?"

Minamitsu and Chiyuri glare at each other from their respective boats, then Minamitsu shouts "I'll teach you not to mess with Captain Murasa little sailor!"

Chiyuri sticks her tongue out while stretching her lower left eyelid and says "you'll be calling ME captain when I beat you!"

From the stands, Youmu shouts "Yuyu-sama, are you sure you don't need my help?"

Yuyuko lies on her sides while reading a magazine on the small boat's deck, then flips her arm in the air toward Youmu and says "don't worry, I'll be alright."

Minoriko and Shizuha both look very nervous, and from the stands, Momiji shouts "come on, you two are goddesses! Have more confidence! Don't make me get that hermit in here!"

The young goddesses stop shaking, stand up straight, and with a determined look on her face, Minoriko takes the helm and says "alright nee-san, we're going to WIN!"

Shizuha, with an equally determined look, grabs a folding fan with maple leaves designs, starts fanning her sister to make her look more dramatic, then says "the wind is on our side! there's no way we can lose!"

The crowd starts to cheer when Julia raises her right hand and says "each competitor must go one lap around the course while avoiding the skillfully placed obstacles, and the first one to cross the finish line is the winner! Competitors, get ready!"

All but Yuyuko stand at the helm of their boats and start the engines.

From the stands, Youmu desperately shouts "Yuyuko-sama, the race!"

Yuyuko just flaps her arm in mid-air and continues reading her magazine.

Julia looks at the racers, ignores Yuyuko, then says "on my mark... Ready, set... GO!"

Julia swings her arm and as she does, it turns to a green beam that writes the word "START!" above her head.

Chiyuri's and Minamitu's boats are the first to sail off, followed promptly by the young goddesses' boat, and from the stands, while her ghost half furiously flies in rapid circles, Youmu shouts "Yuyuko-sama, come on!"

Yuyuko lazily flips her hand in the air, then Youmu furiously jumps from the stands, flies to the boat, starts it up, then joins the race.

* * *

Minamitsu remains in the lead, while Chiyuri and the Aki sisters fight for the second place.

As they sail, they have to be aware not to bump on the wooden planks that rise very suddenly, almost right in front of them, or avoid touching the steam mines, which slow down the already slow motorized boats even more.

Minamitsu sails through the obstacles while laughing heartily, and Chiyuri, though more quiet and concentrated, breezes through the obstacles with ease as well.

Shizuha panics and screams while trying to guide her little sister through the obstacles, but makes Minoriko so nervous, she bumps the boat against two of the wooden planks before bumping against the second mine on the water, slowing their boat to a halt.

Youmu seems to be breezing through the obstacles with ease, but a closer look into the boat reveals her panicked state, and even her ghost half is shaking violently, all while Yuyuko lazily reads her magazine.

From the Aki sister's boat, Shizuha shouts "no~! I failed my little sister!", then stands on the edge and shouts "good bye cruel world!"

Just before she jumps, Minoriko grabs her from behind and anchors her arms around her shoulders, then says "Shizuha, calm down! Look we've only slowed down for a bit! Come on, don't abandon me now!"

Shizuha drops on the deck and hyperventilates, then suddenly recovers, stands up with stars in her eyes, and with determination in her voice, she says "you're right my little sister! I cannot abandon you now! Come on, we have a race to continue!"

Minoriko smiles nervously as she looks at her sister, then says "um... th-thank sis.", then takes the helm again, only to bump against the next plank.

Meanwhile, Chiyuri and Minamitsu are fighting for the first place as they get closer to the turn far out on the now artificial ocean.

As they avoid the many mines on the way, Minamitsu shouts "don't try to make me laugh sailor! Just step away and let me finish the race!"

While focusing on the mines, Chiyuri shouts back "shut up you loudmouth! Or are you trying to make me lose on purpose? Show some dignity, you so-called _captain_!"

Minamitsu gasps, then exclaims "oh, now it's ON! NOW IT'S PERSONAL!"

The race between the two intensifies as they take the turn and sail down the stretch to the finish, while Youmu and Yuyuko slowly catch up, and the Aki sisters continue to hit all the obstacles, making it look as though they are aiming for them.

Minamitsu and Chiyuri reach the final stretch, and the obstacles have stopped popping up.

Now it's a matter of who gets to the finish line first, but both girls are even, and neither seems is about to back away.

Chiyuri looks at Minamitsu and angrily shouts "hey, old hag! Once I beat you, I want YOU to call me captain, and give me that flying ship of yours."

Minamitu's hair seems to catch fire as she growls and shouts "OLD~ HAG~?"

Chiyuri chuckles and says "made you lose, you hag!", then manages to take the lead while Minamitsu is distraught.

Without hesitation, Minamitsu pulls her ladle from her pants, along with a spell card that floats just above it, then shouts "you blonde twerp, I'm gonna teach you some MANNERS! Drowning Sign, Sinkable Vortex!"

A ridiculous concentration of droplet bullets suddenly appear in front of Chiyuri's boat, as well as a powerful whirlpool that threatens to sink the boat, and before she can take evasive maneuvers, Chiyuri screams as the droplets fall on her and her boat, then slowly sinks into the whirlpool as the droplets cause a storm around her.

Not considering the space the vortex takes, Minamitsu tries to brave the storm, but she gasps and shouts "wait, this is my spell! What's going on?", as she realizes she's caught in her own whirlpool and is slowly sinking along with Chiyuri's boat.

Julia looks angrily at the two and says "I forgot to mention, spell cards affect all, even the caster."

As her head sinks into the water, Minamitsu shouts "now you tell us!"

Youmu has finally caught on, but is caught by the remains of the spell and her boat starts spinning around in the remains of the vortex, even though she holds on tightly to the wheel at the helm, then shouts "Yuyu-sama, abandon ship!"

Yuyuko lazily flips the page on her magazine and calmly says "lighten up Youmu, it's just a race."

The boat suddenly sinks, then the crowd starts to cheer loudly.

Finally, after a long while, the Aki sisters can see the finish line in front of them, but what surprises them most is that they don't see any of the other competitors or their boats anywhere.

Shizuha points forwards and shouts "COME ON SIS! Fate has smiled upon us! We can WIN!"

Minoriko looks a bit confused at first, but her eyes fill with determination, she takes the wheel again, and with a confident smile on her face, she says "let's finish this race, nee-san!"

The crowd starts to cheer as the young goddesses of autumn slowly reach the finish line, and with tears of joy in their eyes, the sisters wave at the crowd, Shizuha saying "sis, we did it! We really did it."

Their boat's bow is about to pass through the finish line, when Yuyuko's boat suddenly rises from the water and crosses the finish line with a loud splash.

Yuyuko stands firm on the front deck, swinging an old sword around and wearing a pirate's hat, while smiling whimsically and saying "arr you scurvy dogs! Time to walk the plank!"

Youmu sighs and face palms while still holding on to the wheel, then says "Yuyuko-sama, please stop that."

Yuyuko smiles as she looks at Youmu, swings the sword around, then says "it's alright Youmu. As long as I look cute, there should be no problem."

Yuyuko suddenly swings her sword at Youmu, causing her breasts to bounce around, then blood gushes out Youmu's nose as she looks at Yuyuko with a shocked face.

On the back of the boat, Minamitsu and Chiyuri rapidly swing their arms at each other, Chiyuri angrily saying "you are not my captain! You are not even alive!"

Minamitsu growls and shouts "you have to learn your place, young sailor!"

* * *

Sounding greatly surprised, Julia says "w-well folks, there you have it! The winners of this race are Yuyuko Saigyouji and Youmu Konpaku! I'm so sorry misses Aki! Maybe next time."

Minoriko and Shizuha sob away while kneeling on their boat, then Shizuha manages to crawl to her little sister, places a comforting arm around her shoulder, then says "it's alright Minoriko. We did our best and we didn't give up."

Momiji jumps on the boat and helps the two girls up, and as she helps them off the boat, she says "that's right. You may not have won today, but keep it up, and you'll be fine in the end."

Yumemi and Byakuren sigh as they separate the fighting sailors, and as if synchronized, they strike their heads with their fists, then Yumemi says "in the end, you two need to remember..."

Byakuren smiles whimsically as she says "you are both equals, even if it's not really something worthy of notice."

Both girls now kneels next to each other, turning into two depressed masses on the ground as their spirits leaves through their mouths.

Byakuren giggles, though shows some shame when she asks "oh my, did I say something wrong?"

Yumemi simply smiles and says "it's alright. They can take it."

On the winners stand, Youmu happily accepts her gold trophy, then raises it above her head to show it off to the cheering crowd.

Yuyuko approaches Youmu, then says "you see Youmu? They think you are cute in that swimsuit too."

Youmu suddenly remembers she's wearing her swimsuit, then rapidly lowers her arms to cover herself, blushes beet red, and as her ghost half helps her cover up, she nervously says "heh-heh, Yuyu-sama, please help me."

Yuyuko only squeals gleefully, then says "don't be modest Youmu. This was your victory after all."

On the stands, Reimu sits next to Ail, who still wears his dog paws, tail and ears, and looks blissfully happy as Sanae continues to squeeze him tightly.

The shrine maiden looks at Ail and says "hey, you still have the paws and ears you know."

Ail and Sanae giggle and kiss, irritating Reimu a bit, so the maiden discretely moves her hand to take Ail's dog ears off, and when her hand is just one inch away, while smiling at Sanae, Ail says "touch the ears and you die...", then continues snuggling with Sanae.

Reimu grins mischievously at the couple and says "so, you really did like your gift after all."

Ail replies a quick "yup", then continues to snuggle away with Sanae.

Reimu chuckles for a bit, then sighs, looks down to her feet with a smile, then suddenly flies away.

Rika quickly approaches the couple, strikes Ail's head with her fist, then angrily asks "why did you make my lady cry?"

Ail rubs his head as he and Sanae stare at Rika curiously, then he says "calm down, we didn't do a thing!"

Sanae scowls and says "yeah. He just told her to leave his cute ears on, that's all. Besides, she seems just fine to me!"

At the bottom of the stands, Reimu chats with Marisa, laughing hard while Marisa looks depressed and annoyed.

Rika blushes with embarrassment, then bows down while saying "ah, sorry about that. I-I thought you did something to her. Um... don't mind me. Please continue. Sorry... Sorry."

* * *

That night, the picnic area and the plaza between the apartments are the sight for one last festivity.

Everyone is in their kimonos, enjoying food and games on kiosks being attended by robots, making the resort look like a shrine festival sight, though smaller than a real one.

Though everyone is in kimonos, Kanako still wears her swimsuit, looking very upset as she and Suwako make their way around the Cheery Blossom Picnic area.

Suwako wears a purple kimono with a beautiful misty forest designs that takes the bottom of the front, and the bottom of the very long sleeves to make a complete picture.

She looks at Kanako with an annoyed face and asks "why are you still wearing that? Look, everybody's in their kimonos!"

Kanako pouts as she looks away, then says "nobody paid attention to me at all! They were drooling over Rika, Hijiri, and that Makai goddess. It's just not fair, I'm attractive and radiant as well!"

Suwako chuckles and says "yeah, and an old hag."

Kanako immediately wraps her hands around the laughing Suwako's neck, hissing and shouting "the snake eats the frog!"

Meanwhile, Ail, who wears a rather plain white shirt and brown pants kimono with a yin-yang orb on the belt, Budou, who wears a cute pink kimono with cherry blossoms designs, and Sanae, who wears a light blue kimono with windy mountains designs on the bottom and long sleeves, make their way back to the apartments to ready themselves to leave.

On their way, they meet Kyo, who wears a black shirt with fire design and black pants kimono, and Luna, who wears a red and pink kimono with cherry blossoms under a blue sky design all over a vest.

Both look extremely content and almost shining with radiance, which makes Ail feel a bit estranged around them.

Sanae greets the couple and says "hey, you look good, but where have you been? You missed the boat race."

Medicine and Su-San, who wear matching black and red kimonos with flower designs, walk toward Sanae with a pale and terrorized face, then says "you shouldn't ask such things."

Kyo smacks Medicine on the back of the head, then asks "so, you two heading home already?"

Ail nods, then says "yeah. Me and Budou are getting a little tired."

Sanae adds "and I need to prepare some things for tomorrow at the shrine, so I can't stay much longer either."

They all smile at each other, though Budou can't help but suddenly yawn, causing Phredia, who wears a glowing yellow kimono with miniature red flower designs to pop out of her heart to pat her head and give her some extra energy boost.

Ail and Sanae wave to their friends as Ail says "ah, she's about to drop. Sorry Kyo, gotta go. I'll see you tomorrow at the village."

Kyo waves back, and as he, Medicine and Luna make their way to the farthest kiosks, he shouts "remember, you and I gonna have to fight soon. Don't let me down."

Ail sweats and whispers "geez, what's with all the fighting?"

As they make their way back, they see Byakuren, who wears a black kimono with golden flowers designs, Shinki, who wears an open-bust light blue kimono with silver daisies designs, and Yuyuko, who wears a cherry blossoms design kimono, drinking tea while kneeling on some cushions on the ground, and smiling whimsically at nothing in particular.

Further ahead, Alice, who wears a navy blue kimono with simple translucent white waves and dots designs, Shanghai, who wears an orange kimono with random and colorful designs over a vest, and Hourai, who wears a white kimono with pink leaves designs at the bottom, reenact Marisa's recent encounter with Cirno for a large crowd of humans, tengu and kappa.

While Alice uses a large Marisa doll, Shanghai plays the role of Cirno, while Hourai uses her voice as background music.

Mimicking Marisa's voice, Alice says "don't worry little weak and stupid fairy, I'll go easy on you."

Shanghai, sounding proud and boastful says "oh yeah? Well I am the strongest fairy, and I've learned to freeze danmaku, so you don't need to hold back."

Now, sounding a little worried, she asks "er, but I can't freeze laser, so could you not use them?"

Mimicking Marisa, Alice says "alright...", then the Marisa doll pulls out a flashlight and says "I'll just use this instead."

Shanghai screams "oh no~! A flashlight~!"

Ail laughs at the sight along with the crowd, while Sanae quietly giggles, then Budou elbows Ail's leg and says "don't be mean papa! Miss Marisa was just being nice to miss Cirno."

Ail rubs his leg as he smiles and says "alright, I'm sorry, he-heh, but you have to admit, that's just funny."

Budou angrily elbows Ail's leg again, then walks away.

* * *

Later, at the apartments plaza, Ail, Sanae and Budou come across Reimu, who wears a red kimono with pink, and red petals fluttering under a dark-blue night sky designed all around the bottom of her Kimono, Marisa, who wears a white kimono with red waves designed onto the borders of the bottom and the sleeves, Tenshi, who wears a light-blue kimono with peaches designs all around, Suzaku, who perches on Rika's shoulder, and Rika who wears the kimono gifted to her by Shinki, making her look radiant, as well as elegant beyond comparison.

They sit on some benches that seem to be placed there for a reason, though nobody knows what for and simply use them for resting.

Ail, Sanae, Budou and Phredia approach the girls as Sanae says "so there you guys are!"

The girls turn around to greet them all with smiles, though Marisa's face is a bit blue from being depressed.

Ail stares at her and asks "yikes, what's wrong with you?"

Reimu giggles and answers for her, saying "nothing, I just offered her a flashlight."

Reimu chortles to suppress her laugh, while Rika looks away, giggles, then turns around and says "my lady is just being playful."

Marisa whimpers while Ail stares at Rika and says "wow, you look amazing."

Rika giggles and blushes while looking away, then says "th-thanks mister Ail."

Sanae grabs Ail by his ear and pulls down hard, and through her teeth, she asks "what was that just now?"

Ail screams "ow, ow, ow! I said she looked amazing, I didn't say she was Sanae!"

The maiden swiftly changes expressions and almost immediately hugs Ail, saying "aww~, you're the sweetest."

Ail's ear pulsates as he angrily says "geez, you know you're the only one for me. Besides, I was just commenting on how elegant she looks, nothing more."

Sakuya, who wears a dark-blue kimono with a night sky over a thick forest design, peeks her spiteful face as she glares at Ail, making him twitch and shiver with fear.

Sanae tightens her grip on Ail, thinking he's reacting to her own reaction before, then tenderly says "I'm sorry Ail-kun. I just love you so much."

Remilia, who wears a blood-red kimono with a red full moon designed on the left side, jumps in front of the glaring Sakuya and pushes her away, whispering "Sakuya, you're not starting anything now. Now sit down already."

After Sakuya is taken care of, Ail sighs and relaxes, then returns Sanae's hug and says "it's alright honey. Just remember Sanae is the only one for me."

Meanwhile, Budou approaches Marisa, pats her thighs to try to comfort her, then says "don't listen to these idiots miss Marisa. You are a kind girl and you just didn't want to hurt Cirno."

Marisa suddenly grabs Budou and gives her a hug, then rapidly repeats "thankyouthankyouthankyou".

The lights suddenly dim, then Nitori's voice echoes all over the resort as she says "will the guests please come over to the plaza! I repeat, guests, please come over to the plaza. I have one final treat for all of you."

* * *

Once everyone gathers on the benches, Nitori, who wears a blue kimono with her favorite spot at the waterfall on the Youkai River designed all around it, flies next to the pink curtains, where the old resort's offices used to be, then waits for everyone to settle down.

Once it's quiet, Julia flies next to a red rope next to the pink curtains, then Nitori, whose voice sounds all around the resort, says "welcome all. I am so glad you could make it."

She looks around and smiles, then tears start flowing from her eyes as she says "I want to thank you all so much. Agava, Rumia, you two and miss Letty gave me so much support, even when I tried to push you away."

Agava, who wears a black kimono with random golden vine designs, and Rumia, who sits next to Agava and wears a white kimono with random black stars designs, blush after hearing their names, and smile bashfully while looking away.

Still unable to control her tears, Nitori continues "Ail, Rika, and all my friends... Budou, Kyo..."

She suddenly sobs and seems is going to stop, but gulps and continues "really, thank you all... for everything. Even after what I did, after all that happened, and you, Kyo, after what... after everything that happened because of me, I want to say, thank you all for still thinking of me as a friend. If something good came out of all of this, it's that I finally understand my ideals are a reality. Kappa, humans, tengu, youkai, all can be friends. We just need to look in our hearts, and stop paying so much attention to our differences."

Everyone looks a bit confused now, though Byakuren smiles widely after hearing Nitori's words and is about to join her, but Minamitsu, who wears an underwater ocean design kimono with long sleeves grabs Byakuren by her right shoulder and keeps her in place.

Nitori gulps and dries her tears, then says "as a gift from me to you, I have prepared something very special... and here it is!"

Nitori nods at Julia, then she pulls on the rope and reveals seven robots behind the curtain, all holding on to large rainbow guns.

At first, the crowd gasps, but the robots aim to the bit of ground beneath them and pull on the triggers, each shooting one beam of a different color that flies above the crowd, loops just above them, then heads straight to the beach.

The crowd is amazed by the sight, expressing their excitement as the rainbow beams start dripping rainbow-colored droplets that glisten as they fall and disappear before getting too close to the people.

Budou suddenly jumps off Marisa's lap, cackling like a mad scientist, points at Julia, and in a funny accent, she says "Julia, pull ze zwitch, kyahahaha~!"

Julia smiles mischievously as she reveals a lever to the robot's right, to which even Nitori gasps and looks at with confusion, and when she pulls on it, a set of elegant glass stairs rise from the ground, and a glass track appears in front of the robots, where the colorful beams now trail through all the way toward the beach, where the beam itself reaches a diamond-shaped stone that channels the beam over the water, making it look like the water itself is a rainbow.

Nitori gasps at the sight and exclaims "ra-rainbow surfing!"

Budou and Julia smile at Nitori, who excitedly ask "how? How did you do it? I thought..."

Julia approaches Nitori and says "it was all miss Budou's idea lady Nitori."

Budou smiles warmly as she says "I got the idea when I pointed a flashlight against a clear crystal."

On the stands, everybody starts to chortle, while Marisa's face turns blue, her eyes become round white disks with tears underneath, then Budou gasps and says "n-no wait! Miss Marisa, it's not what you think! I swear!"

Marisa sighs, looks up, smiles confidently as she flips her thumb up at Budou, then says "it's ok little one. Don't worry, I won't let it get to me."

Budou sighs with great relief, then smiles back at Marisa, all while Nitori continues to stare in awe at her new attraction, the very same attraction she couldn't get to work in the beginning; Rainbow Surfing.

* * *

While everyone continues to gaze at the beautiful rainbow track and marvel at the cool rainbow droplets that continue to rain down, Reimu stares at Aya, who wears a maple leaf design Kimono with a white base and black borders, Hatate, who wears a purple Kimono with red and pink heart designs that seem to be falling to the bottom of the kimono, and Momiji, who wears a light-gray kimono with a sleeping white wolf design that takes up the bottom and longs sleeves to make one large image.

She rests her head on her hands as she thinks to herself, and when they notice they are being watched, all three turn around and Aya asks "what is it Reimu?"

Reimu lifts her head and looks at Aya, then says "I was just wondering why Hatate's spirit photography didn't work before... when you brought me that hat the second time, remember?"

Hatate suddenly turns pale as Reimu continues "I mean, you told me you tried everything, and yet, I still can't help but wonder why it didn't work."

Hatate starts to sweat, her face turns blue and white, her eyes hide under her hair, and Aya, much unlike Hatate, has her face slowly turning red as she glares at Hatate.

With a suspicious tone, Aya asks "wait a minute... Hatate, you did try to use that phone of yours... right?"

Momiji jumps over the bench to hide beside Reimu, as Hatate starts to shiver and says "um... that is... er, like, I typed in... stuff, but, umm..."

Aya's wings suddenly appear and spread open while her face turns redder and a vein starts to pulsate on her left temple, then, trying to hold back her rage, she speaks through her teeth as she asks "so... did you, or did you not try using that spirit photography?"

Hatate sighs in defeat, slumps, then sadly says "I-I forgot..."

Reimu suddenly says "oh, that's a shame. Really, we could have avoided so much."

Another vein starts pulsating on Aya's forehead, then Reimu, truly unaware of what's happening, continues "I mean, we could have caught him sooner, and we would have probably avoided having Aya mutilated and almost killed... Ah, but it was probably fate."

Aya suddenly jumps over to Sakuya, lifts her kimono, takes a knife from Sakuya's knife strap, then flies straight at Hatate, shouting "YOU LITTLE BI~~TCH!"

Hatate quickly flies away, crying "wait, wait Aya! You forgot too!"

Aya shouts "that hurt! That hurt a LOT! Here, let me show you just how much it HURT!"

Hatate cries "come on, I'm, like, sorry already! Come on, cut it out~!"

Just as Aya is about to grab Hatate's Kimono, a golden washtub drops from the ceiling and lands on her head, then bounces off with momentum and strikes Hatate on the back of her head.

As the girls fall, the washtub flies down straight at Ail, who grabs Budou and shields her with his body and gets struck on the back of his head, and when Sanae tries to help, the washtub bounces back and strikes her face.

Afterward, it flies straight at Sakuya, bounces off toward Patchouli, strikes Remilia, smacks Flandre, ricochets against Byakuren, Shinki, Youmu, Yuyuko, Yuka, Elly and Kurumi, then flies off to the sky.

It bounces off a wall and heads straight at Reimu, but Rika shouts "MY LADY~!", and gets in the way and gets smacked on the face.

Tenshi unsheathes her sword and prepares to attack, but gets struck on the face, and the washtub continues and strikes Mima, bounces off to Momiji, then ricochets again, striking Minoriko, Shizuha, Suwako, Medicine, Kyo, Luna, and Chiyuri.

It takes flight again just as Yumemi, who wears a red and violet kimono with gradient flowers designs around the waist, walks out of the bathroom.

She looks around and asks "what did I miss?"

The washtub falls on her head and bounces off toward s-Kyo, then ricochets on to Rikako and bounces off to Meiling, then to Koakuma, then takes momentum and flies up to Nitori, ricochets off her head and flies back down.

Agava and Rumia peek their heads from under the benches, wondering if it's safe, then the now spinning washtub strikes Agava on the forehead, bounces off to Rumia, then takes flight once more.

Marisa panics and runs around, then suddenly gasps, pulls her Hakkero from the ribbon around her waist, then the washtub falls on her head with a loud clang.

It bounces off and flies straight at Minamitsu, then ricochets off her forehead, flies straight at Shou and strikes her face, bounces off to the fairy's head, ricochets off her forehead, flies straight at the screaming Ichirin, bounces off her head, goes through Unzan, and finally falls on Kanako's head so hard, it breaks to a stop.

Kanako starts to sway around while trying to keep on her feet, then dizzily asks "wha-what happened?"

The entire resort gets up from the ground and cheer for Kanako, lifting her up and chanting her name.

For a moment, she remains dizzy and unable to absorb what happened, but when all that faith kicks in she starts feeling renewed and vigorous.

She pulls the broken washtub off her neck, throws it away, lifts her right fist, then shouts "WHO'S YOUR FAVORITE GODDESS?"

Everybody cheer's Kanako's name, the washtub falls on its side, strikes her forehead, then finally shatters to pieces, knocking the goddess out.

Meanwhile, Reimu sits on the bench, still thinking to herself, then looks at Kanako and says "oh, she stopped it. Good for her."

From the bustle of the crowd, she can hear Kanako angrily saying "hey, watch where you squeeze there." A man bashfully replies "sorry."

* * *

Later that night, Reimu, Rika, Suzaku, Mima, Tenshi and Marisa, now in their normal attires, arrive to the Hakurei shrine through one of Ail's gap, then all but Reimu, who is looking back, gasp in surprise.

Reimu leans closer to the gap and says "thank you. You guys have a good night!"

From the gap, Ail, Budou and Sanae reply "bye! Have good nigh~!", then the gap closes.

When Reimu turns around, her face turns blue as she gasps and backs away, then shouts "MY SHRINE~~!"

Nazrin, Kogasa, Nue, Orin, Okuu, Koishi, Yamame, Kisume, Tewi, Luna Child, Sunny, Star, Maribel, Mystia, Suika, Yukari and the elderly woman, all are spread around the shrine, cheering and partying hard.

The woman approaches Suika and says "gimmie another round sweetie! Mama's running dry here!"

Suika smiles as she pours some sake on her cup and says "wow, lady, for a human, you can sure drink!"

The woman gulps the whole thing down, exhales, then says "honey, I can keep this up all night if I have to!"

The more peaceful ones, Satori, Ran, Chen, Renko, Reisen, Eirin and Parsee, are all inside the hot spring, quietly drinking sake with content looks on their face.

By now, even Rika has taken cover far away, behind the furiously enraged shrine maiden, who is noticed by Yukari, Suika and the old lady, who now stand in front of the donation box.

Yukari stares in shock and says "oh... dear."

The old lady shouts "behind the box darling, you'll be safe there!"

Suika, Yukari and the old lady run behind the donation box, and as an ominous wind blows around Reimu, the shrine maiden lifts a spell card on her right hand and shouts "DIVINE SPIRIT, FANTASY SEAL~!"

From the farthest distance, where the shrine is still visible, the incredible sight of a multi-colored nuclear explosion that rocks all of Gensokyo illuminates the night for a moment, then everything settles down.

* * *

The next morning, Budou is at the Misty Lake, watching as Cirno plays around the water, freezing random spots on the water with her new ability.

Budou gets a little closer and loudly says "congratulations on beating miss Marisa. Now, you need to continue training, and don't let the victory go to your head, or..."

Cirno ignores Budou and continues freezing random spots all over, then turns around to look at the bat youkai, points at her, then says "you dare challenge me? I'm the strongest fairy in all of Gensokyo! There's nothing you can do to defeat me! HA~! What's the matter? Are you so scared you can't speak?"

Budou smiles at Cirno, looking a little too friendly, then points her finger, then starts shooting one light-bream after another, knowing full-well the fairy can't freeze lasers, and even though Cirno screams and shouts "ok, ok, that's enough, ow, STOP!"

Budou continues to shoot, softly saying "_don't go getting cocky now~._"

Inside the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Ail and Sanae accompany Sakuya to the library, when Ail suddenly asks "so you just left the mansion all alone and unprotected like that?"

Sakuya elegantly chuckles, and with a smile on her face, she says "of course not. Patchouli placed some powerful protections around the gate. No chance in hell of anyone other than ourselves or the fairy maids getting in or out."

Out on the back of the mansion, Kali lies on the ground with her skin burned to a crisp and spinning eyes.

Kimi stares at the shadow with disgust, then says "that's what you get for not listening. I told you en times over, the barrier was strong."

Kali just moans as a response, and simply remains on the ground.

Meanwhile, at the Youkai River, Nitori sits on the edge of the water with her feet dunked in, wearing her backpack once more and looking happy about it.

Hina stands behind her with a smile on her face, and asks "and why aren't you at your resort, miss big-business kappa?"

Nitori continues to smile blissfully as she looks to the sky, letting the warm sun caress her face, and says "Julia's taking care of it. I spent too much time in there, and I want to compensate, so I'll only go down there when needed."

Hina giggles and says "well, to be honest, I'm really glad to see you again. I really missed talking to you."

Nitori looks back at Hina, smiles, then says "you know what? After this experience, I learned to appreciate my friends a little more."

She closes her eyes to face the sun in the sky once more, then says "like Ail, Momiji, Kyo, you... and miss Rika. She's proved to me what a great friend she can really be."

At the Hakurei Shrine, while Reimu quietly enjoys some tea on the shrine's porch, Suika, Yukari, the elderly lady, and the rest of the party-goers, are all cleaning the disastrous mess of cups and spilled food all over the shrine.

Meanwhile, Rika is quietly tending the flowers and vegetables in her greenhouse, when the jewel on her sword suddenly starts glowing an intense shade of blue, getting Rika's full attention.

When the jewel dims, Rika chuckles, then says "I'm so glad miss Nitori. You can count on me. Whenever you may need me, I'll be there... Of course, as long as it doesn't inconvenience my lady."

And so, life returns to normal, or as normal as life can get in Gensokyo.

Because of one single human, this paradise was almost lost, but because of the combined efforts of many, humans, kappa, tengu, gods, demons and youkai, paradise has been restored.

Perhaps now, after all that's happened, those living here will gain a little more wisdom, and if not, at least a little bit more sense.

* * *

Tenshi flies straight down from heaving to the Hakurei Shrine while on a large keystone, aiming for a large peach on the roof of the shrine.

Her keystone crumbles to pieces the moment it touches the roof and her limbs flail around the air as she falls along with her shattered keystone.

After everything settles, Tenshi lies on the roof and moans in pain, then shouts "the peach was a LIE AGAIN~!"

Reimu starts to laugh hard, and Rika shouts "oh-no, Tenshi, are you alright? My lady, she could be hurt!"

Suzaku flies around the shrine and squawks when she spots Tenshi lying on the roof, then swoops down and joins Reimu as she laughs away at Tenshi's misfortune.

And so begins another day in the calendar of Gensokyo.

* * *

Dear Friend from Sukima... THE END!

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenarios were created by ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Ail, Budou, Phredia, Kyo, Luna Rivers, Agava, s-Kyo, Kimi and Kali were created by Willie G.R.

Rika Onkamikami and Suzaku the Vermillion Bird were created by Snapshot 2010

NOV 23 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**And finally, it's finished. Really, this is my LONGEST EX chapter yet. Even so, I had to cut out so many mishaps, lol-moments, Meiling, Shinki, Byakuren, Rika Onkamikami and Yuyuko drool moments, mountain goddess bashing, as well as an entire cast drool-fest. I also wanted to put in more kimono details, but... it was just too much! At least the washtub has returned, and it CAUSED CHAOS! Everything is right with the world. Oh yeah, I hope the MAN service didn't scare you too much. If it did, I'm sorry. If it didn't, I'm sorry. Really, so much macho manliness... Still, hope I didn't overdo it with the fan service either. Yes, that was a treat for me, but again, I just hope I didn't overdo it.**

**Now, before I start my next project, I am going to take a long break! I'll be writing a bit, 'cuz I just love it, but I won't be posting anything yet... for a while. But that's ok, because I'll eventually start posting again, though slowly. Don't want to overwhelm anyone. Anyway, see you next time, if the spirits will allow it, and thanks for reading this far. Oh that's right, I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I'm going back to whimsical, non-sensical, lol-moment randomness again! Too much seriousness really depressed me at some point! No more. Time to laugh and enjoy, LOL.**


End file.
